Kay Scarpetta is a fictional character inspired by former Virginia Chief Medical Examiner Marcella Farinelli Fierro MD (retired).
[1] She is the protagonist in a series of crime novels written by Patricia Cornwell noted for its use of recent forensic technology in Scarpetta's investigations.
Scarpetta returns to Virginia in Trace, convincing herself that she was fired from her position at the request of her replacement, Dr Joel Marcus.
In Predator Scarpetta becomes the head of the National Forensic Academy in Hollywood, Florida, a private institution founded by her wealthy niece, Lucy.
Subsequent on-again, off-again relationship with Mark James, who dies in a bombing in a London Tube station (in the novel Cruel and Unusual).
Early in her FBI career Lucy is seduced by Carrie Grethen, a sociopathic coworker who is in cahoots with Temple Gault, a cold-blooded murderer who had crossed Kay's path a few years before.
In Predator, Lucy is diagnosed with a benign brain tumor that alters her physical appearance and seems also to modify her personality.
In 2007's The Book of the Dead she almost kills Pete Marino when she discovers he has attacked and almost raped her Aunt Kay.
In Blow Fly, Lucy helps murder Rocco Caggiano, Pete Marino's renegade son, in a Polish hotel.
In the early books, he is a homicide detective for the Richmond police department, eventually rising to the rank of captain.
Marino seems to have problems with women through the whole Scarpetta series, stemming from a prior marriage which resulted in a son who becomes a lawyer for a drug cartel.
In Book of the Dead, Marino reacts badly to news of Scarpetta's engagement to Benton Wesley, and after getting drunk and under the influence of a testosterone drug, he attacks Kay and almost rapes her.
"He was FBI right down to his Florsheim shoes, a sharp-featured man with prematurely silver hair suggesting a mellow disposition that wasn't there.
In Point of Origin Benton disappears; a body is found at the scene of a fire, tortured and badly burned.
In the early books Benton is described as the unit chief of the FBI profilers with a master's degree in psychology, working out of Quantico.