From Potter's Field (novel)

Infobox Book |
name = From Potter's Field
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = Patricia Cornwell
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = United States of America
language = English
series = Kay Scarpetta
genre = Crime fiction
publisher = Sphere
release_date = 1995
media_type = Print (hardcover, paperback)
pages = 405
isbn = 978-0-7515-3046-9
preceded_by = The Body Farm
followed_by = Cause of Death

"From Potter's Field" is a crime fiction novel by Patricia Cornwell.

Plot introduction

"From Potter's Field" is the sixth book of the Dr. Kay Scarpetta series by author Patricia Cornwell.

Explanation of the novel's title

A potter's field is a place for the burial of unknown or indigent people. The term comes from bibleref|Matthew|27:7 in the New Testament of the Bible, in which Hebrew priests take 30 pieces of silver returned by a repentant Judas and "used the money to buy the potter's field as a burial place for foreigners." It was not called "the potter's field" because a maker of pottery owned it, but rather because the land was unfit to grow crops, and therefore only used by potters to dig clay.

Plot summary

The story begins as a rotten Christmas for Scarpetta: Temple Gault has struck again, leaving a naked, apparently homeless girl shot in Central Park on Christmas Eve; Scarpetta, as the FBI's consulting pathologist, is called in. Later, a transit cop is found shot in a subway tunnel, and, back home in Richmond, Virginia, the body of a crooked local sheriff is delivered to Scarpetta's own morgue by the elusive, brilliant Gault. The normally unflappable Scarpetta finds herself hyperventilating and nearly shooting her own niece. In the end, some ingenious forensic detective work and a visit to the killer's agonized family set up a high-tech climax back in the New York subway, which Gault treats as the Phantom of the Opera did the sewers of Paris.

Characters in "From Potter's Field"

*"Kay Scarpetta" - Chief Medical Examiner.
*"Benton Wesley" - FBI Profiler.
*"Lucy Farinelli" - Kay's niece. FBI Trainee and programmer at the Engineering Research Facility at the FBI Academy, Quantico.
*"Pete Marino" - Captain in the Richmond Police Department. Started dating a woman named Molly since Thanksgiving.
*"Paul Tucker" - Colonel, Chief of Police, Richmond. "He had been a basketball star at the University of Maryland and a finalist for a Rhodes scholarship. He was extremely fit, exceptionally bright and a graduate of the FBI's National Academy." [From Potter's Field, p.13.]
*"Frances Penn" - Commander of the New York City Transit Police. A woman very much alike "Kay," when she said to her, "personal relationships are your nemesis because you can't have a good one by overachieving. You can't earn a happy love affair or be promoted into a happy marriage. And if someone you care about has a problem, you think you should have prevented it and most certainly fix it." When "Kay" asked about her inquisition, she mentioned that, "Your story is my story. There are many women like us. Yet we never seem to get together." [From Potter's Field, p.109.]
*"Carrie Grethen" - Accomplice to "Gault." She "had been Lucy's programming partner and intimate friend." [From Potter's Field, p.149.] Drug addict, she helped "Temple Gault" murder "Lamont Brown." [From Potter's Field, p.271-272.]

Victims

*A mutt puppy - It belonged to "Rachael" when she and "Temple Gault" were five years old. "The puppy disappeared and that night "Jayne" woke up to find it dead in her bed." [From Potter's Field, p.349.]
*"Rachael Jayne Gault" -Originally named Jane Doe because her identity could not be determined. [From Potter's Field, p.348.] Killed at Cherry Hill in Central Park, New York. Before she met her demise, "she was dressed in a man's topcoat and an Atlanta Braves baseball cap. Her head was shaved." [From Potter's Field, p.29.] She was most likely forced "to strip and walk barefoot to the fountain" [From Potter's Field, p.32.] , where she was shot "at close range in the right temple excised areas of skin from her inner thighs and left shoulder." [From Potter's Field, p.32.] and "her nude body propped against the fountain." [From Potter's Field, p.30.] She is deduced to be "Temple Gault's" twin sister. [From Potter's Field, p.326.]
*"Officer Jimmy Davila" - Officer in the New York City Transit Police Homeless Unit. Known to be "a good officer. He was so helpful, never complained, and his smile. He brightened a room." [From Potter's Field, p.120.] "He was twenty-seven, with only a years' service. [From Potter's Field, p.114.] He was found "on his back, his winter jacket unzipped, revealing the stiff shape of a bulletproof vest beneath a navy blue commando sweater. He had been shot between his eyes with the .38 revolver on top of his chest." [From Potter's Field, p.116-117.]
*"Sheriff Lamont Brown" - Sheriff in the Richmond Police Department. Also known as "Sheriff Santa," his a corrupt officer who "snorted cocaine and probably stole half of what was donated to be delivered by him to the poor each year." [From Potter's Field, p.3-4.] His body was personally delivered by "Temple Gault" to the morgue at three in the morning. [From Potter's Field, p.205.] "The victim's head was covered by a black plastic garbage bag that had been tied around the neck with a shoelace. He was clothed in blood-soaked pyjamas and wore a thick gold bracelet and Rolex watch. Peeking out of the breast pocket of his pyjama top was what appeared to be a pink envelope." [From Potter's Field, p.206.]
*"Detective Jakes" - Killed by "Temple Gault" after "Kay" discovered "Sheriff Brown's" body was delivered by him. "Marino" and "Kay" was just right outside the morgue at the time. When "Marino" called for him and waited more than twenty minutes without any correspondence, he decided to go look for him. [From Potter's Field, p.219.] He was eventually discovered inside the crematorium oven. When "Kay" and "Marino" opened the oven door, they discovered that "the body burning on the tray inside had not been there long. The clothes had incinerated, but not the leather cowboy boots. They smoked on "Detective Jake's" feet as flames licked the skin off his bones and inhaled his hair." [From Potter's Field, p.222-223.] "X-rays revealed he had received a crushing blow to the chest prior to death. Ribs and sternum were fractured, his aorta torn, and a STAT carbon monoxide showed he was no longer breathing when he was set on fire." [From Potter's Field, p.224.]
*"Detective Maier" - He was found by "Kay" at the moment she saw "Temple Gault" holding "Lucy" hostage. "Detective Maier" was welded to the third rail of southbound tracks, hands and teeth clenched as electricity flowed through his dead body." [From Potter's Field, p.402.]

Other Deaths

*"Temple Brooks Gault" - Serial Killer. Described by "Kay" as having "many shades of hair." With "Sharp features and eyes as pale blue as a malamute's." "He enjoyed military clothing or designs suggestive of it, such as the boots and the long black leather coat he was seen wearing in New York." [From Potter's Field, p.238.] "His first encounter with the criminal justice system had been less than five years ago when he was drinking White Russians in a bar in Abingdon, Virginia. An intoxicated truck driver, who did not like effeminate males, began to harass "Gault," who had a black belt in karate. Without a word, "Gault" smiled his strange smile. He got up, spun around and kicked the man in the head. Half a dozen off-duty state troopers happened to be at a nearby table, which was perhaps the only reason "Gault" was caught and charged with manslaughter." [From Potter's Field, p.67.] He also holds a great animosity towards his twin sister "Rachael Jayne Gault." According to his father, "from day one "Temple" wanted to squash her like a bug. He was cruel." [From Potter's Field, p.349.] He was killed by snipers after having an artery slashed by "Kay" using the scalpel he used to hold "Lucy" hostage. "A sniper fire cracked twice from inside the tunnel in the direction of the station, bullets pinged, and "Gault" fell close to the rail he had almost thrown "Lucy" on. A train was coming and I did not free him of the tracks. I walked away and did not look back." [From Potter's Field, p.404.]

Major themes

* The hunt for the serial-killer Temple Gault.

Allusions/references to actual history, geography and current science

* The story is set in Richmond, Virginia and New York.

Notes

External links

* [http://www.patriciacornwell.com/ Author's Official Website]