Patricia Cornwell
in conversation with Jamie Lee Curtis
Listen to the podcast from our event with Patricia Cornwell in conversation with Jamie Lee Curtis.
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’Aventure prize—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.
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 two other fictional series based on the characters Win Garano and Andy Brazil.
While writing her new Captain Chase series, Cornwell spent two years researching space, technology, and robotics at Captain Calli Chase’s home base, NASA’s Langley Research Center, and studied cutting-edge law enforcement and security techniques with the Secret Service, the US Air Force, NASA Protective Services, Scotland Yard, and Interpol.
Visit her website.
Jamie Lee Curtis is an actress and author. She has appeared in many acclaimed films such as Halloween, Knives Out, Trading Places, True Lies, Freaky Friday andA Fish Called Wanda. She has appeared on television in the series Anything But Love, The Heidi Chronicles and Nicholas’ Gift, NCIS, New Girl and Scream Queens.
She is the author of 12 bestselling children’s books. Me, Myselfie and I was published in 2018 by MacMillan.
She is a recovering alcoholic/addict and is an advocate for children, animals and the environment and has proudly served on the Boards of CASA and CHLA. She is an outspoken activist, an amateur photographer and apparently invented Instagram. Jamie has been married to Christopher Guest for 36 years and they have two adult children.
Captain Calli Chase races against time to thwart a plot that leaves the fate of humanity hanging in the balance in this new thriller from international bestselling author Patricia Cornwell.
“The creator of Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta peers into space and finds just as much skullduggery there… [introducing] an equally strong, even more tormented heroine… [in] federal special agent Capt. Calli Chase.”—Kirkus Review
In the aftermath of a NASA rocket launch gone terribly wrong, Captain Calli Chase comes face-to-face with her missing twin sister—as well as the startling truth of who they really are. Now, a top secret program put in motion years ago has spun out of control, and only Calli can redirect its course.
Aided by cutting-edge technologies, the NASA investigator and scientist turned Space Force pilot sets out on a frantic search for the missing link between the sabotaged rocket launch and her predetermined destiny…a search that someone else seems very interested in stopping.
From NASA to the Chase family farm, to the White House to distant orbits of space, Calli plays a high-stakes game of hide-and-seek with a cunning and ruthless adversary. One wrong move will unleash cataclysmic consequences reaching far beyond the boundaries of Earth.
This heart-pounding Captain Chase thriller from Patricia Cornwell will leave readers desperate for more.