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Sharp Force

The nail-biting new Scarpetta thriller for 2025

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Sharp Force

By: Patricia Cornwell
Narrated by: January LaVoy
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About this listen

 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 Crime Thrillers Genre Fiction Medical Thriller & Suspense Haunted Ghost Crime

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
All stars
Most relevant
I normally love Scarpetta novels but I feel very disappointed in this one. There was a lot of 'filler' that did not live up to Cornwell's normal intense writing. I would not recommend this to Scarpetta fans.

Disappointing

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After being a fan for many years and enjoying all of the previous Dr Scarpetta books, I was looking forward to this book. But I'm really disappointed. The story is boring. I missed being on the edge of my seat not being able to put the book down. I was just waiting, hoping the next chapter would be better than the previous one, no such luck. Nice to hear that Dr Scarpetta, Benton and everyone else is ok, but that's the only thing I got from this book.

Boring

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Some of the characters have become very tedious. I have been following Patricia Cornwall since the beginning. This book is not her best, but it is definitely not a worst.

Not her best

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