For 35 years, Patricia Cornwell has thrilled, educated, and horrified readers with her bestselling series featuring forensic pathologist Kay Scarpetta. I’ve been along for the ride through many of those books, always eager to check in with her familiar cast of characters. One of the things I’ve always admired about Cornwell is the way she grounds her stories in the present day, leaning into new technologies and finding fresh, believable ways to terrify her readers. Sharp Force, the 29th novel in the series, is no exception. It blends cutting-edge science, an intriguing mystery, and a cast that’s hard to resist. When the publisher offered me a copy, I jumped at the chance to see where Scarpetta’s latest case would lead.
There’s no rest for the weary, even on Christmas Eve, and Kay Scarpetta has long accepted that as fact. As the chief medical examiner for the state of Virginia, she’s used to being called in at inconvenient times. Her husband, Benton Wesley, is a secret agent, so the pair are accustomed to last-minute emergencies upending their plans. This year, though, they’ve vowed to finally take a vacation. It’s Christmas, after all. Kay just needs to finish one final autopsy, deliver the victim’s personal effects to the family, and she’ll be ready to relax. Benton has already called, delayed but not deterred by the winter storm hammering the city.
As she prepares to leave the office, Kay realizes the weather is far worse than she expected. And of course, she’s already promised to personally deliver the victim’s belongings to the family. It's a small act of compassion that reminds her that the people on her table are more than just bodies beneath her scalpel. Thankfully, Marino, the gruff former homicide detective turned investigator for the medical examiner’s office—and, awkwardly, Kay’s brother-in-law—arrives in his truck to chauffeur her across the city. He’s worked up, as usual, this time about the latest sighting of the “Phantom Slasher,” a figure who’s been terrorizing the city for months.
The slasher’s MO is chilling. He disables the victims’ Wi-Fi before attacking them in bed, brutally stabbing and biting them to death. Each scene is meticulously bleached to erase DNA evidence, and witnesses report seeing a ghostly figure in black levitating through the fog. Now, the phantom has been spotted at the home of TV journalist and eternal thorn in Kay’s side, Dana Deletti. Could Dana be the killer’s next victim? Kay isn’t sure, but she knows the media frenzy surrounding this case is about to explode. With the threat of another murder looming and a storm closing in, it’s clear her long-awaited vacation may be slipping further out of reach.
Sharp Force sees Patricia Cornwell firing on all cylinders, and it’s no wonder why. The 29th installment in the Kay Scarpetta series brings together everything longtime readers love, while still working perfectly as a standalone. That accessibility is what makes this series so enduring. You don’t have to read every book to follow along, but no matter where you dip in, you’re guaranteed to be entertained.
Cornwell has always been at the forefront of technology, treating each new innovation as an opportunity to elevate her mysteries and anchor them firmly in the present. In a world where any question can be answered with a quick search on the phone in our pocket, her ability to craft genuine enigmas feels especially impressive. In Sharp Force, the central threat—a seemingly ghostly apparition—is chilling. Kay knows, rationally, that ghosts aren’t real, but that doesn’t make facing one any easier. It’s that interplay between logic and raw human fear that fuels much of the story’s tension.
Cornwell ties it all together with an unsettling gothic setting at a psychiatric hospital and a cast of characters whose tangled relationships and emotions give the novel real depth. The result is a story as strong as any of the best in this long-running series. And with a TV adaptation of Scarpetta set to debut early next year, Sharp Force is a thrilling reminder of why I can’t get enough of this character.
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(2025, 80)
