Wednesday, September 18, 2019
7:30pm
Patricia Cornwell
in conversation with Jamie Lee Curtis
discussing the writing life and her new thriller,
Quantum
El Portal Theatre
5269 Lankershim Blvd,
North Hollywood, CA 91601
PURCHASE TICKETS
$30 General Admission Seat + book
$20 General Admission Seat* (available Aug 19, 10am)
*a bookseller will be on site selling books
This event sponsored in part by Amazon Publishing
Patricia Cornwell sold her first novel, Postmortem, in 1990 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.
Jamie Lee Curtis is an actress and author. She has appeared in many acclaimed films such as Halloween, Trading Places, True Lies, Freaky Friday and A Fish Called Wanda. Last year she reprised her role as Laurie Strode in the blockbuster 40thanniversary, Halloween, which broke records including it being the biggest opening for a movie starring a woman over 55. She has appeared on television in the series Anything But Love, The Heidi Chronicles and Nicholas’ Gift, NCIS, New Girl and Scream Queens which earned her a seventh Golden Globe Nomination for Best Actress in a Comedy. She is the author of 12 Bestselling Children’s Books. Me, Myselfie and I was published in 2018. 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. Jamie has been married to Christopher Guest for 35 years and they have two adult children.
Patricia Cornwell’s Quantum delivers pulse-pounding thrills in a series featuring a brilliant and unusual new heroine, cutting-edge cybertechnology, and stakes that are astronomically high. While writing Quantum, 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.
On the eve of a top secret space mission, Captain Calli Chase detects a tripped alarm in the tunnels deep below a NASA research center. A NASA pilot, quantum physicist, and cybercrime investigator, Calli knows that a looming blizzard and government shutdown could provide the perfect cover for sabotage, with deadly consequences.
As it turns out, the danger is worse than she thought. A spatter of dried blood, a missing security badge, a suspicious suicide—a series of disturbing clues point to Calli’s twin sister, Carme, who’s been MIA for days.
Desperate to halt the countdown to disaster and to clear her sister’s name, Captain Chase digs deep into her vast cyber security knowledge and her painful past, probing for answers to her twin’s erratic conduct. As time is running out, she realizes that failure means catastrophe—not just for the space program but for the safety of the whole nation.