November 1, 2000
Operators:
Point of Origin
Bestselling crime novelist Patricia Cornwell doesn’t use her
by Ron Bower, Reporting from
MOST NEWLY LICENSED private pilots can remember the somewhat intimidating
experience of their first flight with a more experienced pilot on board. That
is how I now feel, again, writing an article about one of
Each year during the past decade, she has written a series of crime novels
that have consecutively hit the Number 1 spot on the New York Times
Bestsellers List. One thing that sets Cornwell apart from most of her
bestselling contemporaries is that she is a helicopter owner and licensed
pilot. A graduate of the
Recently, I flew with her in her
The route of flight was eastbound from Teterboro
to the
Once we cleared the
Her 407 (N407CE) is well equipped, particularly for regular trips into
Saving a critical commodity
As with any business or profession, productivity tools can leverage one’s
most critical commodity—time. The helicopter is one such tool. Cornwell says
her
The pressures of deadlines and production quotas are as real for a famous
writer as they are for a factory worker. Much of Cornwell’s time is spent in
travel-clogged
Lately, she has been on-site in her
Her close involvement with groups like the
This is a good trait for any pilot, as well. Her desire to get the details
right, then fit them, puzzle-like, into larger pictures, is a trait that is
reflected in her helicopter flying, as well as her novel writing. She has
excellent situational awareness; she watches not just what is happening at the
moment, but like the plot development in her novels, she anticipates what lies
ahead.
Setting the scene
I asked Cornwell if she had to "get into character," as actors
must do when playing a role. She replied that writing fiction is a much more
complicated process. In addition to getting into the minds of all the
characters, she also must act as the playwright, director, set designer,
lighting and props coordinators, and sound engineer. Rather than having live
actors, realistic props, and colorful scenery as in a play or movie, she has to
do it all with word pictures.
Believe it or not, she often uses her helicopter to help her achieve this.
To aid her with accuracy in scene and character development, Cornwell uses the
helicopter to get the "big picture" on locale and topography, and
then lands to get more detailed insights into a setting.
Her flight instructor, Rob Roberts of HeloAir in
For example, in her research to better understand the perspective and
mindset of "coon hunter" characters like Bubba in her book, Southern
Cross, Cornwell went on an all-night coon hunt with some "good ol’ boys" and their hounds. She even captures the
personalities of the animals.
When her main character had to don scuba gear to retrieve a body in murky
waters in Cause of Death, she took diving lessons. She didn’t do it for
fun, or even because she wanted to, but just to be able to communicate how it
really feels.
The smell of jet fuel in the morning...
Cornwell’s enthusiastic support of helicopters can be seen on the dust
jackets of many of her books, where she is pictured standing proudly in front
of a
It is obvious that Cornwell enjoys both the challenge and pleasure of
helicopter travel. The helicopter offers a unique and refreshing solace, away from
her hectic demands and schedules as a celebrity writer and personality.
I asked her if she had developed an affinity for the smell of Jet A exhaust, a common sensory delight of many helicopter
pilots. She deftly described why most of us unknowingly like it. "It is a
powerful association, because it is tied to a powerful subject," she says.
In many of her books, she similarly relates to the uniquely pungent smell of
Hoppe’s gun-cleaning solvent in scenes at the FBI’s shooting range in
But as a veteran, I can tell you that jet fumes also trigger memories of
death. Most of us in Western culture have a sterile, distant and unrealistic
involvement with death, particularly violent death. Cornwell’s books help put
us in contact with the reality of pain and suffering, and they do it in a frank
but dignified way.
Make no mistake: Cornwell’s novels are not for the squeamish. Her books
often deal with autopsies and other forensic procedures in gruesome detail. The
characters sometimes use high-tech tools to gather unseen evidence at grisly
crime scenes. She can make you hear the Stryker saw used in autopsies and smell
the stench of the morgue.
An activist writer
A 1979 graduate of
After graduation, Cornwell worked for five years as a police and crime
reporter for the Charlotte Observer. From there she moved to Richmond,
where she worked for six years in the Virginia Chief Medical Examiner’s office,
first as a technical writer, and then as a computer analyst. During those
difficult years, publishers repeatedly rejected her manuscripts.
While working for the chief medical examiner, she observed many autopsies,
which gave her the practical and technical background for her first thriller, Postmortem
(1990). It was an instant best seller, the first of many. The novel won major
literary awards the following year, both in the
The lead character, Kay Scarpetta,
a woman who holds both a medical and law degree, is the Chief Medical Examiner
for the
The unique paint and interior of Cornwell’s
The helicopter’s exterior is accented with the colors of the Scarpetta crest against a shiny black background. Each
color has a meaning: Yellow represents enlightenment, red represents power,
blue stands for spirituality "so we can use the power justly," and
olive symbolizes the unending war against evil. The black, not surprisingly,
represents death.
Symbolism aside, the Scarpetta novels also have
given Cornwell a certain professional credibility and the financial resources
to advance social causes that are important to her. Cornwell uses her real-life
experience with forensic medicine and government bureaucracy to support an
activist role. On September 14, she went to Capitol Hill in
"We’re in a critical situation in this country," the Washington
Post quoted her as saying the next day. "In some jurisdictions, if a
woman gets raped, the evidence may languish in a paper bag in a lab for as long
as two years because the backlog is so crushing."
Cornwell also has shown a willingness to bankroll her causes personally. Due
to the immense popularity of her book, her company, Cornwell Enterprises,
developed a variety of Scarpetta collector’s items
sold from her official web site at www.patricia-cornwell.com.
The proceeds of those sales go to various charities. In addition, Cornwell
heavily supports literacy programs.
The art of the deal
Some well-known writers, such as Tom Clancy, also have publicly feuded with
movie producers over the dramatization of their novels. All in all,
Cornwell has been very cautious and concerned when it comes to making her
books into movies. She says she is intent on keeping the motion picture
versions as faithful to her books as possible. And, like Scarpetta,
she will go toe-to-toe with producers to make it happen.
Daily Variety, the entertainment industry newspaper, reported in July
that Cornwell is negotiating a multiyear, multimillion-dollar picture deal with
Sony Pictures Studios. The deal would grant exclusive movie rights to Sony for
all 11 of the Scarpetta novels.
Should the deal go through, it is likely you will see helicopter action in
many of those films, and this time, the helicopters will be used to catch the
bad guys. Because of Cornwell’s worldwide popularity, particularly in Europe
and the
R&W Spotlight: Patricia Cornwell
Each year since 1990, Cornwell has published a continuing series of
bestselling Scarpetta novels, all of which are still
in print. Here is a list, in order of publication.
In addition to the Scarpetta novels, Cornwell
wrote two other mysteries with a female police chief who supports the concept
of community policing: Hornet’s Nest (1996) and Southern Cross
(1999).