Author Patricia Cornwell talks to The Inside Reel about context, structure and human behavior in regards to her newest Kay Scarpetta novel: "Identity Unknown" from Hachette Books.
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00:00Well, it has to do with tone and obviously, you know, your books have been translated
00:23into film and obviously will be done again.
00:26So you know, the idea is, you know, tonality is very important, but it's also what you
00:31see the characters do, like the characters of Lucy here, characters of Ben, I mean, Marino
00:36is a whole other thing.
00:37But I mean, it's basically what's said and what's not said that shorthand, but then also
00:42the mystery of why are these people doing this, even though they're supposed to be so
00:46close to me?
00:48Could you talk about that?
00:49Because I think that dynamic and watching these characters sort of revolve around Scarpetta
00:55revolve around them really is sort of the yin and yang and the real meat of what we're
01:00seeing.
01:02I used to say a long time ago that that I would create a crime story because it's really
01:07just an excuse to get all the characters together, because that's, you know, the characters
01:12are the most important thing.
01:14If they aren't people that you want to spend time with, I don't care how intriguing the
01:20case is or the mystery or how dramatic the scenes are, what cool stuff you might show
01:25somebody, if you don't care about them, you're not going to care about the rest of it.
01:29For example, when I have the scene in Identity Unknown where Scarpetta has to go scuba
01:35dive in the Chesapeake Bay because of an aircraft that's crashed and there's a body to be
01:40recovered and it's all related to everything else that's going on, she and Lucy go put
01:46on their wetsuits and their gear because they're scuba divers par excellence and we
01:52watch them work together.
01:54And meanwhile, Scarpetta is dealing with all kinds of stuff.
01:57And so is Lucy that's going on in their own lives.
02:00And I kind of love the scene when they're floating on top of the water waiting for the
02:05boat to come pick them up.
02:06And they've got the body in this body bag that's, you know, that they're sort of floating
02:11with to get it back on the ship.
02:14And they're waiting and they're waiting.
02:17And the water's kind of lapping up over their faces.
02:21And it's the aunt and the niece, you know, they're there together.
02:26And what is that like when they're.
02:28And so I think people, you are so correct that if you don't have something with these
02:34people that make you want to be part of them.
02:36I mean, that's why we watch shows like Friends, for example.
02:39We want to be part of it.
02:40We want that to be our family and Scarpetta and Marino and Benton and Lucy and Dorothy,
02:45they are family for everyone.
03:04You go out, you go scuba dive, you go try to do all these things and you put yourself
03:08in their shoes.
03:09But this one, how do you try to do that?
03:12I mean, you can read a lot of declassified stuff.
03:14You obviously have great context, too.
03:17Can you talk about looking at this concept and bringing it to bear for you?
03:22Well, you know, it's reading a lot of things that people are seeing, looking at videos
03:27of these UAPs or UFOs, you know, and listening to what the whistleblowers are saying about,
03:34you know, crash retrievals and reverse engineering.
03:37And and their belief that, yes, yes, yes, there is non-human intelligence.
03:41There are there is something besides us.
03:44And I believe that's true.
03:45I mean, there's something in mathematics called the Drake equation, which basically
03:49shows you that statistically it's almost impossible that we are the only life in the
03:55universe, the only intelligent life in the universe.
03:57And so, you know, so I explore that.
04:01And then it's a big what if what if you had something that looks like that's what
04:05happened. But is that really what happened?
04:08I mean, someone's really dead.
04:09And all those things are true that I've just described in a UAP was spotted.
04:12But remember, a UAP just means you don't know what it is.
04:16It doesn't mean it's from outer space or that an extraterrestrial made it.
04:23Now, it doesn't mean it was.
04:25That's not the case either.
04:26But it could be either or.
04:27And why my last question, because it comes back, interestingly enough, to human
04:31behavior, human greed, human motivation, all these things, you know, and that keys
04:37into it as well.
04:38Could you talk about looking at human behavior?
04:41Human behavior is the same as it was five hundred thousand years ago.
04:45We just have more toys to play with now.
04:47So I know.
04:49I mean, it's yeah.
04:51Human behavior is I will just say it is a problem.
04:55I mean, it gives me job security and it certainly gives SCARPETTA job security.
05:00But what SCARPETTA will tell you is that, I mean, she's not afraid of extraterrestrials
05:04and I'm not either. I mean, if they want to zap us, they could already done it.
05:08But what I but what I do know, and so does she.
05:11And she says it. It's people.
05:13It's humans who bring death to her door every day.
05:18It's not people from the extraterrestrial community that are being shot with
05:23shooting people with ray guns or something.
05:24It's humans. We're you know, and it's just like you said, it's it's greed.
05:29It's revenge. It's power struggles.
05:33Or it's just a violent psychopath who takes pleasure in causing pain.
05:38It's it all boils down to the same thing.
05:40The root of all evil is the abuse of power.
05:43And whatever that may form that may take, that's what keeps SCARPETTA in business.
05:47And it's the one thing she won't do.
05:50She will never abuse power.
05:52And that is one of the things that makes her such an important role model,
05:56I think, because she does things the way they ought to be done.