I hate the term "mystery". That's not what I write. I think the Scarpetta novels are much more character-driven than an average puzzle solver. Writing should be like a pane of glass - there's another world on the other side and your vision carries you there, but you're not aware of having passed through a barrier to get there.

Do no harm & leave the world a better place than you found it.

On the last morning of Virginia's bloodiest year since the Civil War, I built a fire and sat facing a window of darkness where at sunrise I knew I would find the sea.

I'm always surprised when large numbers of people buy my books.

Murder is about power and the more powerful women get the more it will change the good that they do and the bad that they do.

In the first person, the readers feel smart, like it's them solving the case.

Night fell clean and cold in Dublin, and wind moaned beyond my room as if a million pipes played the air.