True Crime: A Memoir

'Let's start, and end, with this: Patricia Cornwell's autobiography, True Crime, could be the best book she's ever written. And I've read them all!' JAMES PATTERSON'Patricia Cornwell's memoir is a personal page turner, filled with mysteries and tragedies like her fiction, but these characters are real' JAMIE LEE CURTIS

The No.1 Sunday Times bestselling author Patricia Cornwell finally tells the story that rivals all of the works that precede it: her own.

Patricia Cornwell is best known for her international bestselling thriller series about forensic pathologist Dr Kay Scarpetta. Every story comes from somewhere, and Scarpetta's began when Patricia Cornwell embedded herself in a morgue.

In this achingly honest memoir, Cornwell excavates her own life, detailing her traumatic childhood being raised by neglectful parents, her father abandoning the young family on Christmas day, her mother being institutionalised twice, an abusive foster family, and developing a parental relationship with evangelist Billy Graham's wife Ruth. Cornwell depicts a harrowing hospitalisation and near-death car accident. She unflinchingly shares overcoming obstacles that later gave her the ambition to become an award-winning police reporter. From there it was research in a medical examiner's office that would turn into a full-time job. She would become a forensic expert and worldwide publishing phenomenon.

Cornwell leaves no stone unturned in this deeply candid account of her life, offering inspiring insight into what made her into the international sensation she is today.

'A memoir with all the thrills and twists - not to mention a bit of blood and terror - of one of Cornwell's thrillers' VAL MCDERMID'Cornwell brings a deft hand and her well-honed storytelling skills to the circumstances of her own fascinating life' DAVID BALDACCI'The story behind the storyteller is captivating, thrilling, heartbreaking and truly inspiring' CHRIS WHITAKER'Unflinching, unfiltered, fearless. True Crime is a fascinating, insightful page-turner. I loved it' ANDREA MARA

Author: Patricia Cornwell
Format: Hardback
Pages: 464
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Published: 5 May 2026
ISBN: 9781408725047