Patricia Cornwell on new Scarpetta book
New mystery is called 'Trace'
(CNN) -- Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta novels, involving a medical examiner who often ends up on the trail of serial killers, have sold millions of copies. The author dropped by CNN's New York studios Wednesday for an interview with Daryn Kagan.
DARYN KAGAN, ANCHOR: Good morning. Good to see you again.
PATRICIA CORNWELL, AUTHOR, "TRACE": Good morning. Nice to be here.
KAGAN: Dr. Scarpetta is back. Poor thing, she's having a few problems, isn't she?
CORNWELL: Well, I don't think she's ever been accused of having an easy life.
KAGAN: Yes, there's that.
CORNWELL: Yes, tough case, tough personal life, tough everything.
KAGAN: Sometimes we can all associate with that. So she's been in south Florida, kind of freelancing. Now she heads back to her old home, to Richmond, Virginia, but things aren't quite like she expected to find them when she goes back home.
CORNWELL: No, in the first place, you have to wonder what's going on when you get called back in a consultant on a case in an area where you're fired from your job, and that's what's happened to her. So you wonder, is this a political set-up? And of course, it is, not to mention it's one of the most difficult cases in her career, you know, [regarding a] 14-year-old girl who seems to have died from natural causes in bed, but of course we know that's not what happened. And so it's a very intricate, and actually a very disturbing and creepy story.
KAGAN: Last time we talked, you had just written your book trying to solve the murders, the Jack the Ripper murders in England. Why was it time now to bring Dr. Scarpetta back?
CORNWELL: Well, really, the Ripper investigation was simply a diversion from my normal activities, which you know ... is fiction writing. And when I had a chance to work on that real case and did, and brought it to resolution, I've simply have gone back to doing what I've always done, which is my novels.
So, I never -- Scarpetta was just replaced very temporarily by a real investigation.
KAGAN: Kind of interesting when you use the world "normal," your normal life.
CORNWELL: Well, I know. Such as it is.
KAGAN: Not a lot normal there, Patricia.
CORNWELL: As you're probably right.
KAGAN: Yeah. But it felt good to get back to her and to her character?
CORNWELL: Oh, always, always. I love to write about these characters, and I love to come up with an unusual scenario and unusual cases, and to show people areas of forensic science and medicine and police investigation that they might not be familiar with, such as trace evidence, which is simply a microscopic investigation. People leave things behind that they're not aware of, and I want to know what those things are and what they might tell us.
KAGAN: There's a real-life mystery that's kind of coming to light in Kansas City in recent day. The story of -- they're not calling it a serial killer, but a number of related deaths, maybe as many as six, a number of African-American women who have been murdered, and a mystery caller who's calling in to the police there.
Do you follow cases like that? Are you inspired by them?
CORNWELL: Well, I always follow cases like that, because you know, these are the real things going on out there. And I'm interested in them. They move me emotionally. I get upset by them. It's their tragedies. And in cases like the one you're just talking about, I already want to know what kinds of injuries are they finding associated with these remains? Is there a certain, you know, pattern that they're seeing? Is there any evidence?
And of course, it is very peculiar when somebody is calling about a case like that. What are they doing about that? But what might the body still have to say if you're able to understand the very silent language they speak? That's what I want to know.
KAGAN: Right. Unfortunately, in at least two of the case, two of the bodies are so badly decomposed, even difficult to identify the women.
CORNWELL: That's right.
KAGAN: So, the new book is called "Trace." What's next for you?
CORNWELL: Well, I'm working on the one that's to follow that, that right now the working title is "Predator." It's the next Scarpetta novel, and I'm very much involved in that at the moment.
I'm doing all kinds of very interesting research into genetics and also into the human -- into the brain and why people do what they do.
KAGAN: Well, you've made a career out of that. Next book coming around, you'll have to stop by again and tell us about that
CORNWELL: I would love to. Thank you so much.
KAGAN: All right, good luck. Patricia Cornwell -- the new book is called "Trace." Kay Scarpetta is back. Thanks so much.
