Sharp Force

The nail-biting new Scarpetta thriller for 2025

By: Patricia Cornwell

Narrated by: January LaVoy

SCARPETTA, A BRAND NEW ORIGINAL SERIES, IS COMING SOON TO PRIME VIDEO

NO ONE IS SAFE FROM THE SERIAL KILLER. NOT EVEN SCARPETTA...

During the early hours of Christmas morning, chief medical examiner Dr Kay Scarpetta receives a chilling call. The Phantom Slasher has struck again.

The serial killer has terrorized Northern Virginia for months. His pattern is to stalk with a sophisticated technology that enables him to invade his victims' homes and watch their every move. They wake up to a ghost-like hologram before being murdered in their beds.

Scarpetta is summoned to Mercy Island, the site of a notorious psychiatric hospital where two people have been brutalized, one of them from Scarpetta's past. It soon becomes apparent that she could be next . . .

'In Sharp Force Cornwell is at the very top of her game and Scarpetta is as finely wrought as ever. The research is impeccable as always . . . You are in the hands of a master storyteller. Sit back and prepare to be thrilled' DAVID BALDACCI

'Compelling, grisly and dark, another incredible thriller' THE SUN

'This is vintage Cornwell' THE FINANCIAL TIMES

'Masterfully plotted and utterly addictive' WOMAN'S OWN©2025 Patricia Cornwell

Critic reviews

PRAISE FOR UNNATURAL DEATH

A chilling, thrilling, macabre masterpiece. Unnatural Death is Patricia Cornwell at her mesmerising finest. The best just got better (CHRIS WHITAKER)

Sinister, surprising and utterly unputdownable. Cornwell at her brilliant best (M. J. ARLIDGE)

Classic Cornwell with an up-to-the-minute twenty-first-century plot - an intoxicating blend that proves Scarpetta is still queen of the autopsy and Cornwell is still queen of crime fiction. An utterly thrilling roller coaster ride (ANDREA MARA)

An especially good entry in the series

PRAISE FOR PATRICIA CORNWELL

One of the best crime writers writing today

Astonishing . . . Thirty years on, there's still no other crime writer like her

The top gun in this field

America's most stimulating and chilling writer of crime fiction

Forget the pretenders. Cornwell reigns

A pioneer of the genre of forensic psychological thriller

The Agatha Christie of the DNA age

The queen of the forensic thriller

Cutting-edge

When it comes to forensic sciences, nobody can touch Cornwell

Slick, fast-paced and brilliant

PRAISE FOR PATRICIA CORNWELL (-)

Thirty years on, there's still no other crime writer like her

Cornwell really is in a league of her own

One of the all-time greats of this genre

In Sharp Force Cornwell is at the very top of her game and Scarpetta is as finely wrought as ever. The research is as impeccable as always . . . You are in the hands of a master storyteller. Sit back and prepare to be thrilled (DAVID BALDACCI)

Compelling, grisly and dark, another incredible thriller

This is vintage Cornwell

A masterfully plotted and utterly addictive crime thriller

With Cornwell's signature forensic detail and intense pacing, this latest instalment is a must read

A brisk, kaleidoscopic thriller

Expert pacing and psychologically nuanced and complex characters