IR Interview: Patricia Cornwell For "Identity Unknown" [Hachette] - Part I - video Dailymotion

The Inside Reel

Author Patricia Cornwell talks to The Inside Reel about approach, concept and detail in regards to her newest Kay Scarpetta novel: "Identity Unknown" from Hachette Books.

Transcript

00:00One of the things about Scarpetta, beyond the detail you go into, is just sort of the

00:24idea of her psychology, where her mind is, and of course with this book, it sort of turned

00:30on its ear a little bit.

00:31I don't want to give away too much, but that kind of logic versus emotion response is tested.

00:39Could you talk about finding that balance with her within this, in this specific novel,

00:44if you could?

00:46Well this is, it's unusual because when she is headed to a crime scene out in the middle

00:51of nowhere, an abandoned amusement park, where it appears the body's been dropped out

00:55of the sky and a UAP or UFO has appeared on radar and other sensors, and it's like, what

01:01in the world is going on here?

01:03If that's not bad enough, the victim is somebody that she not only has a really important professional

01:10and personal friendship with at this stage of life, they're on several government committees

01:14together, but it's somebody that she had an intense relationship with, a romantic one,

01:19in the very early days of her career, when she was teaching forensic pathology in Rome,

01:24Italy, and Sal Giordano, this astrophysicist was young and he's Italian, and they got together,

01:32they met in a bar, and she had this summer long relationship.

01:37It was sort of the love of her life at that time, but they went their separate ways after

01:41she returned to America.

01:44And so she has a lot of things that are coming up as she is imagined that you are going to

01:48a crime scene, and that body there is someone you have that history with, and she has to

01:53treat them like a biohazard, a hazmat concern, because has he been exposed to something of

01:59non-human origin that could be dangerous to humans.

02:03So she has to have a Geiger counter, a chemical suit, and it just seems, and double bagging

02:08in a special kind of autopsy pouch, which unfortunately is transparent, so she can see

02:14through it when she's riding back on the helicopter with the body on the floor to get to this

02:18special secret facility where she has to do the autopsy in front of all kinds of government

02:26people, the CIA, Space Force, and so forth.

02:30And so it does put her through an emotional ringer in a way, but the way she handles it

02:38is exactly the way she should.

02:41And I will remind people that in the real world, sometimes if you are a practitioner

02:46like this, if you are a forensic pathologist, you're going to have cases where you know

02:50the person.

02:52And I've experienced that myself when I worked in the medical examiner's office and a detective

02:57that I used to ride with almost every weekend for several years committed suicide during

03:02a serial murder investigation that he just had been pushed as far as he could.

03:07And when I got to work that morning, I went into the x-ray room to see his body and to

03:12say goodbye to him.

03:13And it's almost incomprehensible how you deal with that, but you have to compartmentalize

03:20and do the job, which is what SCARPETTA does in this case.

03:24But I think people are going to find this a very special journey, a lot of adventure,

03:28a lot of drama, and a lot of emotional pathos, but in a good way.

03:33It's not depressing.

03:37It sounds weird to say, but it's fun.

03:56But it's only through stakes that the thrill of this kind of novel works.

04:02There's one scene, I think, when she's on the helicopter, that scene you described,

04:06and there's the stillness.

04:08Even though everything's moving around and there's a storm, you feel the stillness of

04:12the body in the helicopter.

04:14And it's about that sort of dichotomy, that yin and yang, and the stakes just grow higher.

04:20And it's about that mystery.

04:21Could you talk about balancing stakes, balancing pacing?

04:25Because obviously, you're obviously an expert at this.

04:29Could you talk about that and finding the right pace for you and how that works with

04:33a SCARPETTA novel now?

04:35I sort of think of it as a symphony orchestra, that I'm conducting it, because I'm not the

04:41one playing all the fancy instruments.

04:43I'm not the characters who are doing all this.

04:45But you've got to keep every section of it in balance and in tune.

04:50And you can't let one overwhelm the other.

04:53You can't have the percussion too loud or the strings too quiet.

04:56And so you bring up a very good point, is that when you're working on stories like this,

05:03there is an awful lot that you're simply doing in the rendering of it.

05:08It's not even the story as much as how it's told, which is true with TV and film.

05:14It's oftentimes, it's how it's filmed, the cinematography.

05:19And if you don't have things exactly right, it's not going to work for people.

IR Interview: Patricia Cornwell For "Identity Unknown" [Hachette] - Part I

Category

Transcript

Recommended