‘Iconic. Bold. Brilliant. Identity Unknown is hauntingly original, impossibly clever and devilishly daring. Scalpel-sharp storytelling, trademark twists and characters that feel like family, this series is one of the all-time greats’ CHRIS WHITAKER, author of Sunday Times bestseller All the Colours of the Dark

Book blurb

Summoned to an unnerving, abandoned theme park to retrieve a body, Dr Kay Scarpetta is devastated to learn that the victim is Sal Giordano, an acclaimed astrophysicist – and a man Scarpetta once loved.

The murder scene is bizarre, with a crop circle of petals around the body. Scarpetta’s niece Lucy believes Giordano was dropped from an unidentified flying craft. Scarpetta knows autopsies can reveal the dead’s secrets, but she is shocked to find her friend seems to have deliberately left her a clue.

As the investigators are torn between suspicions of otherworldly forces, and of Giordano himself, Scarpetta detects an explanation closer to home that, in her mind, is far more evil . . .

My thoughts

‘Iconic. Bold. Brilliant. Identity Unknown is hauntingly original, impossibly clever and devilishly daring. Scalpel-sharp storytelling, trademark twists and characters that feel like family, this series is one of the all-time greats’

CHRIS WHITAKER, author of Sunday Times bestseller All the Colours of the Dark

I just had to put this quote here as well as at the top of the post. It’s quite a comment but I believe it’s one that stands up to scrutiny.

Iconic – Kay Scarpetta is a wonderful lead character brought vividly to the page by Patricia Cornwell in a series that is surely known to all crime fiction lovers and in stories that are terrific reads.

Bold – Patricia Cornwell does not hold back from exploring or including new technologies to aid both the ‘bad guys’ and the ‘good guys’ in this story and throughout the series.

Brilliant – Patricia Cornwell has been writing this series since 1990 when Postmortem was published to great acclaim the series continues to attract readers, receive terrific reviews, go to number 1 in buy lists and receive awards through the consistency of bringing well written, brilliantly crafted stories and great characters to life.

Identity Unknown does not let the side down it is another wonderful story in which Dr Kay Scarpetta is called to a theme park, to a body that is someone Kay has know for many years, Sal Giordano, a man she was once in love with.

What could have happened? She had only seen him hours before just as he was leaving home and Kay gave him a birthday present. Lucy believes he was dropped from an unidentified flying craft but is this an otherworldly crime or is there something more evil and much closer to home that could be happening? What has Sal got involved with? In her desire to get to the truth there is nothing that she wouldn’t do even though it leads her into grave danger.

This book is another terrific episode in the Dr Kay Scarpetta series, one that I thoroughly enjoyed and is well worth reading.

Book: Purchased

Previously read: Unnatural Death| Livid | Autopsy | Chaos | Depraved Heart | Flesh and Blood | Dust | The Bone Bed | Red Mist | Port Mortuary | The Scarpetta Factor | Scarpetta | Book of the Dead | Predator | Trace | Blow Fly | The Last Precinct | Black Notice | Point of Origin | Unnatural Exposure| Cause of Death | From Potter’s Field | The Body Farm | Cruel and Unusual | All That Remains | Body of Evidence | Postmortem

20BooksofSummer2025

I have read Identity Unknown by Patricia Cornwell as part of my 20 books of summer challenge.

My list of books being read for this challenge. 

20 books of summer has new hosts Emma of Words and Peace and you can read all about it on Annabel’s blog including all the rules and sign up. It’s a challenge I’ve always enjoyed and am sure I’ll continue to do so. 

The challenge takes place between 1 June and 31 August 2025.

Information

Published: Sphere, Little Brown Group (2023) |Hachette UK | Grand Central Publications | ISBN: 978-1-4087-2868-0 |

Buy: Bookshop.org (affiliate link) | Hive | Amazon | Your local bookshop | Your local library

Author 

In 1990, Patricia Cornwell sold her first novel, Postmortem, while working at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Richmond, Virginia. An auspicious debut, it went on to win the Edgar, Creasey, Anthony, and Macavity Awards, as well as the French Prix du Roman d’Aventures—the first book ever to claim all these distinctions in a single year. Growing into an international phenomenon, the Scarpetta series won Cornwell the Sherlock Award for best detective created by an American author, the Gold Dagger Award, the RBA Thriller Award, and the Medal of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters for her contributions to literary and artistic development. 

Today, Cornwell’s novels and iconic characters are known around the world. Beyond the Scarpetta series, Cornwell has written the definitive nonfiction account of Jack the Ripper’s identity, cookbooks, a children’s book, a biography of Ruth Graham, and three other fictional series based on the characters Win Garano, Andy Brazil, and Captain Calli Chase. 

Cornwell continues exploring the latest space-age technologies and threats relevant to contemporary life. Her interests range from the morgue to artificial intelligence and include visits to Interpol, the Pentagon, the U.S. Secret Service, and NASA. 

Cornwell was born in Miami. She grew up in Montreat, North Carolina, and now lives and works in Boston.

Patricia Cornwell website | Scarpetta coming to our screens – Good housekeeping

Books

SCARPETTA SERIES

Identity Unknown | Unnatural Death | Livid | Autopsy | Chaos | Depraved Heart | Flesh and Blood | Dust | The Bone Bed | Red Mist | Port Mortuary | The Scarpetta Factor | Scarpetta | Book of the Dead | Predator | Trace | Blow Fly | The Last Precinct | Black Notice | Point of Origin | Unnatural Exposure| Cause of Death | From Potter’s Field | The Body Farm | Cruel and Unusual | All That Remains | Body of Evidence | Postmortem

CAPTAIN CHASE SERIES 

Spin | Quantum

ANDY BRAZIL SERIES 

Isle of Dogs | Southern Cross | Hornet’s Nest 

WIN GARANO SERIES 

The Front | At Risk 

NONFICTION

Ripper: The Secret Life of Walter Sickert | Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper—Case Closed 

BIOGRAPHY

Ruth, a Portrait: The Story of Ruth Bell Graham 

OTHER WORKS 

Food to Die For: Secrets from Kay Scarpetta’s Kitchen | Life’s Little Fable | Scarpetta’s Winter Table