Sharp Force

Patricia Cornwell | Paperback | October 2025

The 120-million-copy bestseller returns with a gripping new thriller featuring Kay Scarpetta.

SCARPETTA, A BRAND NEW ORIGINAL SERIES, IS COMING SOON TO PRIME VIDEO NO ONE IS SAFE FROM THE SERIAL KILLER. NOT EVEN SCARPETTA...

During the early hours of Christmas morning, chief medical examiner Dr Kay Scarpetta receives a chilling call. The Phantom Slasher has struck again.

The serial killer has terrorized Northern Virginia for months. His pattern is to stalk with a sophisticated technology that enables him to invade his victims' homes and watch their every move. They wake up to a ghost-like hologram before being murdered in their beds.

Scarpetta is summoned to Mercy Island, the site of a notorious psychiatric hospital where two people have been brutalized, one of them from Scarpetta's past. It soon becomes apparent that she could be next . . .

'In Sharp Force Cornwell is at the very top of her game and Scarpetta is as finely wrought as ever. The research is impeccable as always . . . You are in the hands of a master storyteller. Sit back and prepare to be thrilled' DAVID BALDACCI

'Compelling, grisly and dark, another incredible thriller' THE SUN

'This is vintage Cornwell' THE FINANCIAL TIMES

'Masterfully plotted and utterly addictive' WOMAN'S OWN

------------

Author Info

Bestselling rural crime author Fleur McDonald has always had a strong affinity with the land and the vast Australian outback. Raised in Orroroo, South Australia, Fleur loves the open roads, red dust and magical sunsets. With 24 fiction novels and more than 850,000 book sales to her name, Fleur has built a strong following of loyal readers with an insatiable appetite for her craft and characters, most notably Detective Dave Burrows.

She spends much of her year behind the wheel, traversing our big country, scouting inspiration and potential storylines for future books, and appearing as a guest speaker at a range of events, including country shows, ladies' days and writers' festivals. A trailblazer in all aspects of her life, Fleur has been a jillaroo farming the land for more than 20 years, founded DVassist to help regional dwellers access crucial support for family and domestic violence, and raised two children with developmental and speech delays, teaching them Makaton sign language to communicate.

These days, in between putting out two books a year, she has her sights set on learning to fly a plane. Fleur now lives in Esperance, Western Australia with her two children, Rochelle and Hayden, and two fur children, border collie Shadow and energetic kelpie, Jack.

---------

Author Info

In 1990, Patricia Cornwell sold her first novel, Postmortem, while working at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Richmond, Virginia. An auspicious debut, it went on to win the Edgar, Creasey, Anthony, and Macavity Awards, as well as the French Prix du Roman d'Aventures - the first book ever to claim all these distinctions in a single year. Growing into an international phenomenon, the Scarpetta series won Cornwell the Sherlock Award for best detective created by an American author, the Gold Dagger Award, the RBA Thriller Award, and the Medal of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters for her contributions to literary and artistic development.

Today, Cornwell's novels and iconic characters are known around the world. Beyond the Scarpetta series, Cornwell has written the definitive nonfiction account of Jack the Ripper's identity, cookbooks, a children's book, a biography of Ruth Graham, and three other fictional series based on the characters Win Garano, Andy Brazil, and Captain Calli Chase. Cornwell continues exploring the latest space-age technologies and threats relevant to contemporary life. Her interests range from the morgue to artificial intelligence and include visits to Interpol, the Pentagon, the U.S. Secret Service and NASA.

Cornwell was born in Miami. She grew up in Montreat, North Carolina, and now lives and works in Boston.