STRAIGHT TALK
By Jeffrey Zaslow
Issue date: Aug. 14-16, 1998
Patricia Cornwell: The best-selling novelist says the
living ought to look more closely at the dead. "It'll give you comfort and closure."
In this story:
 Advice from Patricia Cornwell
Ask Patricia Cornwell for advice
| |  | | | |
Cornwell: What she's reading--
The author of the new Point of Origin, shown here outside her
office near Richmond, Va., tells us she's been reading:Truman Capote by George Plimpton Honor's Voice: The Transformation of Abraham Lincoln by Douglas L. Wilson
| |
 urs is a culture in which the dead are quickly removed from
sight. But dead bodies are worth seeing, says crime novelist Patricia
Cornwell, who saw hundreds in the four years she worked at the medical
examiner's office in Richmond, Va.
"When I first went to the morgue, I had phobias about death. Then I
came to see that a dead body is like a light bulb that's gone out.
The body is the same, but the energy that lights up the eyes and face
isn't there."
Cornwell, 42, has made her name and fortune writing novels in which her
alter ego, medical examiner Kay Scarpetta, nabs killers by studying the
corpses they leave behind. Her new and ninth book in the series,
Point of Origin, earned her a reported $8.5 million advance.
Cornwell, who also has worked as a crime reporter and volunteer police
officer, conducts meticulous research. She buzzes around in helicopters,
hangs out with cops and visits horrific crime scenes. If you'd seen
what she's seen, she says, you'd change your view of
mankind.
"I now have a less liberal attitude about what to do with
criminals. Go to a morgue. ... You know by the tracks [a killer] leaves
on a body that you're dealing with someone who will never be a
non-threatening member of society."
Cornwell, who has seen countless strangers in the morgue, wishes she had
seen her father and grandmother after they died. "Both were
cremated so fast. To this day, it really bothers me. One minute they
were there; the next minute they weren't. It's like a door
that isn't quite closed."
Advice from Patricia Cornwell
Keep an eye on troubled kids:
The epidemic of school shootings signals "that these kids need
to be identified earlier. We all need to be more community-minded. If
you notice a neighborhood child exhibiting frightening behavior --
torturing animals, setting cats on fire -- call the police."
"It's criminal if successful authors don't support literacy.
I challenge them all to write a check." Cornwell did -- for $1
million.
Look for the nearest exit:
Cornwell hangs out with federal agents who investigate fires and accidents. "They won't
get a hotel room on the 25th floor. They know a ladder won't reach
that high. So they stay 15 and below. And wherever they go, they're looking
for fire exits."
ASK PATRICIA CORNWELL FOR ADVICE Patricia Cornwell will write
or call a reader who seeks advice. By Aug. 23, write
to "Straight Talk," P.O. Box 3455, Chicago, Ill. 60654 (fax:
312-661-0375; e-mail:
talk@usaweekend.com).
Photo Credit: MOLLY ROBERTS FOR USA WEEKEND
| 
