Book Review: Identity Unknown by Patricia Cornwell
By John Valeri
October 11, 2024Patricia Cornwell’s iconic heroine, Kay Scarpetta, is having a moment. A mainstay in the annals of contemporary crime fiction since debuting alongside her creator with 1990’s Postmortem—the first book ever to win the Edgar, Creasey, Anthony, and Macavity awards and the French Prix du Roman d’Aventure prize in a single year—she has now appeared in 28 novels and earned Cornwell the Sherlock Award for best detective created by an American author. Under option since her inception, Scarpetta is finally set to grace the small screen in a Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis-led series for Amazon’s Prime Video. But first, she returns in October’s Identity Unknown.
In contrast to the bright shining sun of a beautiful spring morning in Northern Virgina, Kay Scarpetta’s world is enveloped in darkness, the case at hand one of the most disturbing of her career. Seven-year-old Luna Briley lies on her autopsy table, dead from a gunshot wound to the head. And while her parents—the billionaire Brileys, whose money buys influence—claim she discharged the weapon by accident, the forensic evidence tells a different story. Despite pressure to close the case, Scarpetta refuses to do so pending test results that could expose a history of child abuse resulting in murder. Already dispirited, she is then called to the scene of a truly baffling crime, the victim a long-ago lover with whom Scarpetta shared a romantic summer in Rome.
Astrophysicist Sal Giordano’s body is found broken on the yellow brick road that traverses an apple orchard in an abandoned Wizard of Oz-themed amusement park (curiously owned by the Brileys), his skin inexplicably tinted red and surrounded by what appears to be a crop circle made of petals. Scarpetta’s high-tech, helicopter-piloting niece, Lucy Farinelli, believes he was dropped from an Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon (in other words: a UFO) after having been abducted and terrorized. Nicknamed the ET Whisperer for his keen interest in the otherworldly, his mysterious demise invites speculation as to just who or what he may have been involved with. Is he the unassuming victim of a human predator or did paranormal activity lead to his death? Scarpetta has no choice but to find out.
Told through her singular point of view, the narrative offers an intimate glimpse into Scarpetta’s conflicted head and heart (which provides a welcome counterbalance to the story’s cutting-edge science). As chief medical examiner, she is not supposed to allow emotion to jeopardize her objectivity—and yet her outrage over young Luna Briley’s death coupled with the grief over losing Giordano threatens to do just that. Then, there’s the need for investigative transparency, meaning she must reveal her most private secrets for public scrutiny. It’s an untenable position made worse by the fact that her husband, forensic psychologist Benton Wesley, and longtime investigator (and unrequited love), Pete Marino, are present for the interrogation. But the call of duty supersedes all else, and Scarpetta must rise to the occasion with the dignity and discretion befitting her character, whose multitudes continue to unfold.
Identity Unknown is another ambitiously conceived and skillfully told offering from Patricia Cornwell, who relaunched the series with Autopsy (2021) and has maintained an impressive level of energy and enigma since. From postmortems in outer space and microwave gun technology to the mythology of Bigfoot and aliens, she has taken grand ideas and grounded them in Scarpetta’s fact-based-yet-open-minded reality. Whether or not life really does exist beyond earth, Cornwell proves there’s still plenty of it left in her characters, who continue to entertain and evolve in equal measure, even after all these years (and books).