Nicole Kidman as Kay Scarpetta in the season one finale of the TV adaptation 'Scarpetta.' Connie Chornuk / Prime (C) Amazon Content Services LLC Logo text [This story contains MAJOR spoilers from the season one finale of Scarpetta.] In 1990, Patricia Cornwell published her debut novel, Postmortem, about a forensic pathologist named Kay Scarpetta - inspired by real-life former chief medical examiner Marcella Farinelli Fierro - who investigates suspicious deaths in the Commonwealth of Virginia.