Archive

Patricia Cornwell talks “Port Mortuary,” secrets and Jolie

When I first spoke with Patricia Cornwell last year, I was stuck by both her intelligence and thoughtfulness. The author of the world’s number one selling crime series featuring forensic pathologist, Dr. Kay Scarpetta, Cornwell is not only articulate when describing the work involved in keeping her acclaimed series fresh and relevant. She is also keenly aware of the importance of her role as an out celebrity. We recently caught up with Cornwell again to discuss her new book, Port Mortuary, the 18th novel in the series, the Scarpetta film and how being gay influences her work.

AfterEllen.com: Port Mortuary reveals a surprising secret from Scarpetta’s past and brings her into new territory with the US government. Without spoiling it for the reader, can you talk about what inspired the novel?

Patricia Cornwell: When I first started the research for the next Scarpetta book, I decided I wanted to explore the Armed Forces Medical Examiner organization. Post 9/11, this group of people is involved in activities that are very different from the earlier days. Most people’s vague familiarity with them is through footage they see on TV when our fallen heroes are flown home from Iraq and Afghanistan and land at Dover Air Force Base and you see the dignified transfer of the flag-draped cases. But what people don’t know are the people who take care of them. That would be the Armed Forces Medical Examiner. These are our federal medical examiners, but they don’t just take care of our troops. They also take care of cases that fall under their federal jurisdiction so it’s an incredibly interesting bunch of people. I compare them to the FBI or James Bond of medical examiners because they are involved in gathering medical evidence and a lot of classified information. 

When I decided to do research on that, I realized I wanted Scarpetta to have a secret affiliation with the Department of Defense, and although it’s not always been active for the twenty years that we’ve known her, I needed a good explanation for why she had never discussed it with anyone. This prompted me to think, you know, we don’t really know that much about her prior to her Post Mortem days. Other than some rare brushes where I talk about things from her childhood, I’ve never really dug into who she is and who she was and how she actually got to be the Chief Medical Examiner of a sophisticated system like the Virginia system when she was quite young and new at being a forensic pathologists.

That’s when I realized that there’s something she’s not telling us, which led me into this very dark case that she had in South Africa. It was fun to take the reader on an almost subterranean journey where you’re not only exploring scary things that are happening to her now, but going back into something that is even scarier, something she feels shame about and feels it’s been unresolved.

AE: Were you surprised when you learned or figured out Scarpetta’s secret?

PC: Each book is a journey for me, too. I don’t start out knowing all of these things when I sit down. I start with the research. I knew, for example, that I was going to open with her in the shower in the locker room. That’s about all I knew. Then Scarpetta informs me of things. It’s a very strange process. It’s quite vibrant when I’m going through it. You sit there and think, “where is this all coming from?” But with the case in South Africa and her past, I was thinking, “you’re feeling really uncomfortable Scarpetta. What is it? There’s something you’re afraid to tell us.” I know it sounds like I’m channeling, but it’s a very unique experience. I learn something in every book.

AE: You return to the first person point of view in Port Mortuary. Why and how did you make that decision?

PC: When I was researching and trying to figure out what it is she’s kept from us all of these years and why, I thought, this is getting deep. You [Scarpetta] need to tell this story in your own voice. We need to let you tell it in your own timing and in your own way. I handed the baton back to her. At first I felt like a fish out of water. I hadn’t written in her voice in ten years and it took me a while to get used to it, but then it picked up a tremendous amount of energy. She told it in her own way. I’ve started the next one doing the same thing. Right now that’s what I want to do.

AE: The intimate point of view also reflects Scarpetta’s insular perspective in the book. She is suspicious of the other characters, including those in her personal circle, like Benton and Lucy.

PC: She’s not always sure who to trust in her circle. These are people who all have secrets – even Benton, her husband. The two of them are like two secret agents or spies. They have more “non conversations” than anyone you’ll ever meet. They exchange information without directly telling each other what it is they’re trying to say because there are things they can’t discuss. With their law enforcement and criminalist ties, they have to be very careful with what they communicate to each other and yet communicate in a way where they maintain their bond.

[In Port Mortuary] Scarpetta’s been away for six months of training. I think it’s typical for people who’ve been consumed by something and living on site – very much like our troops who are off at war – when you come back you have to feel the edges of everything to see how things have changed. You have to see if you’re still safe in that environment because relationships can change. In her case, she comes home and she doesn’t know whom to trust because all hell’s breaking lose.

AE: One of the more interesting and terrifying aspects of Port Mortuary is that it shows that while forensic science continues to advance, so do the weapons that are used in the crimes that are investigated. Was that something you thought about?

PC: When I was doing research with the Armed Forces Medical Examiners, one of their seasoned investigators said, “Come with me. I want to show you a weapon I’m really worried about.” He took me down into this area and pulled out this “thing,” which I don’t want to talk about because it will spoil it for people, but he showed me this particular weapon, which is available on the Internet. He said, “This is a true horror.” I had a police friend of mine order it and we experimented with it. I’m very familiar with what it sounds like, looks like, and what it does. Then I got a Medical Examiner friend of mine to create an autopsy report that would reflect what a weapon like this would really do. There is no case that you can model it after because so far, as we know, it hasn’t been used on a person and I certainly hope it never is. But this is the world that we live in now. Just look at the Wikileaks. Because of the Internet, there’s so much that’s available to people and a lot of it, quite frankly, they shouldn’t have access to.

AE: With everything that you learn and see through your research, I don’t know how you sleep at night.

PC: You would think so. I’m very aware of the bad things that could happen to people. I can look at any scenario and see the worst case, but I don’t walk around thinking about that in my normal endeavors. I’m not doom and gloom. I also see a balance. I come into contact with so many fantastic people who are the good guys. I meet far more good guys than bad guys. That gives me optimism. It’s easy to forget that there are a lot of wonderful people who every day devote their existence to protecting you. There’s the potential for tremendous evil, that’s for sure, but it doesn’t do any good to get negative and fearful.

AE: In the planned film adaptation of the series, Angelina Jolie is set to play Scarpetta.

PC: That’s the plan, though I always preface this by saying that you have to get there first. When you have someone like Angelina Jolie, you have to have a great screenplay. That’s the stage we’re in right now. The studio and the producer have been working on that for well over a year. Once they have a great script, the film will start moving forward. But as of this moment, Mark Gordon, renowned producer of Grey’s Anatomy and Lost, is still the producer on the project and Jolie is still scheduled to play Scarpetta.

AE: Are you contributing to the screenplay at all?

PC: No, I’ve actually not even seen it. I approved the treatment, which is the overall concept. This was a while ago and now it’s going through the writing process. They will call upon me when they need me for something, but right now I’m not necessary to the process at the stage that it’s in.

AE: What are your hopes or expectations for the film?

PC: Mark’s vision is a really superb one, which is not to adapt one of my actual books for the film but to start out with Scarpetta as she’s just getting started. Because it’s 2010, you can’t start with something like Post Mortem, which is a twenty-year-old book with twenty-year-old technology. It would be far more exciting to imagine Scarpetta today, just landing in her new workplace with the kind of worries we have in this world, with technology and terrorism and everything ramped up way more than it was twenty years ago. His idea is to take the brand new Scarpetta and put her [on] a really thrilling and scary rolling coaster story that’s original.

AE: Will Lucy, Scarpetta’s lesbian niece, be in the film since the story features Scarpetta’s early years?

PC: I think the plan is to have all the characters in it. The interesting thing is going to be how they’re all starting out and where they are with each other in this particular story. It’s tricky when it’s something original and not based on a book, but I think it’s the only way to work it in this case because the series has been around for so long. You don’t want to start Scarpetta out at age fifty with a brand new series – particularly if Angelina Jolie plays her.

I try to tell my fans, look, first of all, there’s nothing to worry about or get excited about because we’re not actually filming yet. But when the day comes, what you need to look at, and the way you need to view this movie, is that it’s in addition to the books. It’s yet another fun way to have a thrilling time with Scarpetta. But don’t expect it to be just like what I do. I think that Angelina Jolie would do a magnificent job. She’s extremely smart. She’s a rather fearless person. She has a real edge. She will play it in a way that will show you the tiger in Scarpetta. 

AE: In terms of your writing, do you think being gay informs your work?

PC: I think that being gay informs everything. It doesn’t mean that that’s how I characterize myself when I first think of me. I don’t believe in labeling or defining people by one particular aspect of their life. I do think that if you are of any persuasion that puts you in the minority then that informs many things about your existence. It’s not comfortable being a minority. Unfortunately our society makes it uncomfortable instead of celebrated because maybe you’re unique or maybe you’re a minority because you are in a small percentage of very special people. We [the LGBTQ community] have to deal with a lot of fears of discrimination and judgment. That’s a real shame.

As always, I appreciate the things that you all are doing because I feel that when it comes to same sex relationships or being gay, so many people just don’t understand it. People tend to fear and judge what they don’t understand. My hope is that the more it becomes commonplace in society, in terms of people reading about it and talking about it and seeing it, they’ll begin to realize, “What’s the big deal here? Nobody’s trying to hurt anyone with this.”

AE: Did you think about this need for more representation when you first began to write Lucy as a lesbian?

PC: My mantra is to be honest. I really believe in telling the truth no matter how painful it might be or how risky. Lucy [came out] when I was working on the Body Farm. We really hadn’t seen Lucy as an adult prior to that. It was a scene in Scarpetta’s house in Richmond and Lucy, I think she was about 19, walked into Scarpetta’s living room. I hadn’t seen her in a while. I took one look at her in my mind and [realized], “Oh my god she is gay!” Somehow I just knew. And I thought, well, this is going to stir up trouble with my publisher. I could have just decided she wasn’t going to be gay, but I let my characters be what they are – whether for good or for bad, I don’t get in their way. I knew at that time she was gay and there was no way on earth I was going to change that. That’s always been the way that I deal with these things and I think that’s one of the reasons that the series stays so vital. As strange a thing for a fiction writer to say, I tell the truth.

AE: Is there anything you’re particularly proud of in Port Mortuary?

PC: I am very proud of this book. I think this is the most powerful book I’ve done in a very long time. I’m proud of Scarpetta in this book. Not only in how she handles these bizarre cases, but the new technology that she’s grasping and the way that she shares it with us. What I really love about Scarpetta in this book is that it’s almost like she’s saying to the reader, “Come with me and hold my hand and I’m going to walk you through something really scary.” She allows you to be with her. 

I really opened Scarpetta up to allow people to get close to her. It’s also inspired me as I’ve gone out and launched the publicity drive. I’ve tried to share the experience with my fans. I go on Facebook everyday. We take pictures. I try to share my book tour with those who are interested so that they can participate in it too. Prior to these social networking [sites], I had never been able to allow my fans to tag along with me. Now I get to do that, whether it’s on a helicopter ride or being on the set of Good Morning America or a book signing. Scarpetta and I are moving forward in the same way. We’re saying to everyone, “Come along with us. We enjoy your company.”

Lesbian Apparel and Accessories Gay All Day sweatshirt -- AE exclusive

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Back to top button