Patricia Cornwell
This celebrity goo was created by Scott Hardie.
publication date: Monday, May 18, 2026 (part of May 2026)
category: 
Literature
clue: It's a good thing that publishers rejected her early manuscripts about an investigator so unremarkable that he may as well have been named Guy Detective, because as she conducted a post-mortem on the failed project, she realized correctly that a forensic scientist would make a far more compelling and long-running protagonist, especially if she looked like Nicole Kidman.
explanation: Crime novelist Cornwell initially focused on a detective named Joe Constable before creating the forensic scientist Kay Scarpetta, who would be the protagonist of most of her books thereafter, starting with her first novel Postmortem. Kidman plays the character in the 2026 TV series Scarpetta. more…
intended difficulty: easy
solved by: Russ Wilhelm, Samir Mehta, and Richard Slominsky
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