She Treads Softly: True Crime

Friday, April 10, 2026

True Crime

True Crime: A Memoir by Patricia Cornwell
5/5/26; 464 pages
Grand Central Publishing

True Crime by Patricia Cornwell is highly recommended memoir for those who enjoy Cornwell's oeuvre. It may also appeal to readers who appreciate detailed autobiographies of those who overcame traumatic childhoods and used that resiliency to later succeed.

What sets this memoir apart from many others are the numerous detailed recollections of a plethora of experiences from her childhood. This is a direct result of her writing her memoir while in college, recording everything that happened to her through her childhood. Born in Miami in 1956, the childhood of Patricia (Patsy) and her two brothers was chaotic. When she was five their father left the family on Christmas day. Their disturbed mother, Marilyn Daniels, later moved them sight unseen to Montreat, North Carolina, home of evangelist Billy Graham and his wife, Ruth. Her mother's decline in mental health is noted and obviously a major influence in her life.

Her mother's delusions led to the family making contact with Ruth Bell Graham. Ruth ended up becoming a life-long touch-point and second mother to Patsy. The memoir shares her disturbing experiences with a foster mother during her mother's hospitalization. She later honestly details her own agonizing hospitalization, serious car accident, and sexual assaults. Because of her interest in crime, she turned from journalism to a research job with the chief medical examiner of Virginia. This job would directly become the inspiration for the character of Kay Scarpetta.

Both successes and failures are honestly shared along the way and her road to success was hard fought with many challenges and failures. At over 450 pages, this is a dense autobiography and, honestly, overly long. I'll be the first to admit that there are almost too many childhood stories included, but, on the other hand, knowing the source of them, their inclusion makes sense. Included is a section about her research and book identifying Jack the Ripper and the blow-back over that. Once Cornwell becomes well known there is a whole lot of name dropping going on.

True Crime is a memoir that will mainly appeal to die hard fans of Cornwell's oeuvre. Thanks to Grand Central Publishing for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.