International bestselling thriller series author Patricia Cornwell ‘s  honest memoir about her turbulent life that led her to ironclad bestseller position. Cornwell excavates her own life, detailing her traumatic childhood being raised by neglectful parents, her father abandoning the young family on Christmas Day, her  disturbed mother, Marilyn burnt all her children’s clothing and inculcated in her daughter of future threats, from flood to sexual predators, being institutionalized twice, an abusive foster family, and developing a parental relationship with evangelist Billy Graham’s wife Ruth. Cornwell depicts harrowing hospitalization 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.

Patricia Cornwell first made her mark as a journalist in North Carolina, where her investigative reporting included an award-winning series on prostitution in 1980. She moved on to work in a chief medical examiner’s office, but she had already met pathologist Marcella Farinelli Fierro, the inspiration for Scarpetta, who would appear in Cornwell’s debut novel Postmortem in 1990.

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.

True Crime: A Memoir by Patricia Cornwell, Sphere £25. Grand Central Publishing $32.50.