Kay Scarpetta Series

Kay Scarpetta is a fictional character in one the series written by Patricia Cornwell. She was born is 1954 in Miami, Florida. Both of Kay Scarpetta’s parents emigrated from Verona, Italy. When she was young, Scarpetta’s father died from leukemia and that experience remained with her up to the present day. Kay Scarpetta is a perfectionist who works incredibly hard. She loves cooking Italian food in her custom-built kitchen in her home.

Scarpetta was married once but they got divorced before writing her first novel in 1990. Since then, Scarpetta had a relationship with Mark James who was killed in the bombing incident at a London Tube station. Later she had a relationship with Benton Wesley, who was allegedly killed but later reappeared. In 2007, Wesley and Benton became engaged and later got married in 2008. Scarpetta drives a Mercedes that she replaces often. In one incident, her Mercedes was involved in the death of morgue assistant. After the incident, Scarpetta became afraid to drive that car so she traded in her Mercedes for a new car that was nearly identical to the old one.

In the early novels, she worked as the Chief Medical Examiner in Virginia but resigned to become a private forensic consultant in Florida. Scarpetta was convinced that she lost her job at the request of Dr. Joel Marcus, who was her replacement. Scarpetta later became the head of National Forensic Academy in Florida at private institution belonging to her wealthy niece Lucy. After this, Scarpetta relocated to Charleston, South Carolina to become a freelance forensic examiner. Later she relocated to Massachusetts, but she also shares an apartment in New York City with her husband. Scarpetta works on a full-time basis while her husband works on a part-time basis in New York.