Scarpetta

"Scarpetta's Winter Table," by Patricia Cornwell. Wyrick & Co. 80 pages. $19.95.Patricia Cornwell's fictional medical examiner Kay Scarpetta is known more for slicing and dicing bodies than for whipping up holiday recipes. But apparently there's more to the good doctor than meets the eye. In "Scarpetta's Winter Table" (Wyrick & Co., 80 pages, $19.95), Cornwell takes a break from her best-selling whodunits to show the softer sides of Scarpetta, her niece Lucy and her police sidekick, Pete Marino.

An article in yesterday's Maryland/Anne Arundel section stated that the county Police Department's internal investigation of a fatal shooting in Glen Burnie Monday night would take three days. The investigation will take at least two months. The officer involved in the shooting will be on administrative duty for three days.The Sun regrets the error.Anne Arundel County police are investigating the actions of a Northern District officer who fatally shot a Glen Burnie man at his home Monday night while intervening in a domestic dispute, police said.

"Point of Origin," by Patricia Cornwell. Putnam. 356 pages. $25.95.Cornwell's ninth thriller featuring Dr. Kay Scarpetta, Virginia's chief medical examiner, is the best yet.It's been five years since killer Carrie Grethen was incarcerated in a psychiatric center. Suddenly, Scarpetta gets a note from Carrie, indicating she's not done causing mayhem for Scarpetta and others."Point of Origin" moves with tension-building pace and Cornwell's characters are more highly developed than her previous works.

The beleaguered Fraternal Order of Police is fighting back against efforts by the Teamsters to represent county police officers.A member of the union representing more than 400 county police officers has asked for a criminal investigation of three members who support the Teamsters, and the local Fraternal Order of Police leadership has begun proceedings to oust those officers and two others from the union.In a countermove, the five officers have threatened to sue the FOP for libel, charging that the union's accusations have scarred their reputations with fellow officers.

County police arrested a Baltimore man Wednesday and charged him with stealing $346 worth of clothes from Macy's in Marley Station mall.Kenneth Edward Walker, 21, of the 400 block of E. Stricker St. was charged with felony theft.Officer Peter Scarpetta, who was patrolling in the mall, said a man walked into the store about 8: 30 p.m. with a J.C. Penney bag and picked up three pairs of jeans, two shirts and a hat from store displays and put them into the bag.He walked out of the store without paying for the items, and Scarpetta stopped him and arrested him, police said.

The beleaguered Fraternal Order of Police is fighting back against efforts by the Teamsters to represent Anne Arundel County police officers.A member of the union representing more than 400 county police officers has asked for a criminal investigation of three members who support the Teamsters, and the local FOP leadership has begun proceedings to oust those officers and two others from the union. In a countermove, the five officers have threatened to sue the FOP for libel, charging that the union's accusations have scarred their reputations with fellow officers.

"Cause of Death," by Patricia Cornwell. G.P. Putnam's Sons. 352 pages.$25.95.A regular reader of mysteries must, on occasion, break things off with a perfectly wonderful character. It's the same old story: You grow apart. She wants one thing, you want something else. Perhaps she's just too good for you.Dr. Kay Scarpetta and I went our separate ways after I read the first four books in Patricia Cornwell's series about the Virginia medical examiner. Scarpetta wanted to venture deeper into thriller territory; I wanted fewer serial killers in my life.

Two men hold up Crown convenience storeTwo men, one with a revolver, held up the convenience store at a Crown station in the 7600 block of Baltimore-Annapolis Blvd. on Sunday, county police said.The men walked into the store shortly before 10 p.m., and one with a gun approached the clerk and demanded money while the other man stood as a lookout, police said.The clerk turned over money, police said.Police do not have detailed descriptions of the men.2 Columbia women charged with stealing clothingCounty police arrested two Columbia women Saturday on charges of stealing more than $2,000 worth of clothing from Macy's department store in Marley Station mall.

For every avid reader of Patricia Cornwell's mysteries -- and considering that her books routinely make the best-seller lists, there are plenty of them -- there are undoubtedly numerous others who react to her work with a fervent "Eww, gross!" After all, Ms. Cornwell's heroine, Dr. Kay Scarpetta, is a medical examiner, and the author doesn't skimp on the gory details of autopsies, rates of decomposition and brutal methods of murder.Even by the standards of her first four novels, however, "The Body Farm" is almost aggressively stomach-turning.

Three people, including a 16-year-old girl, were arrested on drug charges Thursday night after police raided a home in the 200 block of Woodhill Drive and found nearly $4,000 worth of crack cocaine.The raid occurred shortly after 9 p.m. Police found 38 grams of crack cocaine. Eight packets had been packaged for distribution, said police, who also found a ledger, empty plastic bags used to distribute crack cocaine and $305.Joyce Renee Holmes, 35, who lived in the home, Alfredo Ricardo Hernandez, 18, of the 8200 block of Minton Court, and the girl were charged with possession of crack cocaine, possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine and possession of a stolen weapon, a .357-caliber handgun, police said.

Jolie said to next play Cornwell's heroine Angelina Jolie has reportedly signed on to play Dr. Kay Scarpetta, the crime-solving medical examiner in mystery novelist Patricia Cornwell's best-selling series, according to Variety. The trade publication notes that although there are 16 Scarpetta novels, this film won't focus on a specific Cornwell title. In the novels, Scarpetta, the tough-as-nails forensic examiner, has a messy love life and a penchant for opera and Italian cooking. Before relocating to Massachusetts, she was the chief medical examiner of Virginia.

tuesday Scarpetta : by Patricia Cornwell (Putnam, $27.95) Leaving behind her private forensic pathology practice in Charleston, S.C., Kay Scarpetta accepts an assignment in New York City, where she encounters an injured man in Bellevue Hospital's psychiatric prison ward who has a bizarre story to tell. The Charlemagne Pursuit : by Steve Berry (Ballantine, $26) In Berry's fourth thriller, ex--Justice Department agent Cotton Malone searches for answers about his father, Capt. Forrest Malone, after learning that his death wasn't in a 1971 nuclear sub accident in the North Atlantic, but occurred while he was on a secret submarine mission to the Antarctic.

The most appealing thing about mysteries is how transporting they can be. The clues are intriguing to discern and the ending is fun to guess. But what I love best about mysteries is their sense of place. In author Tony Hillerman's Navajo mysteries, it is the arid desert of Arizona and New Mexico, the color of the mountains and the power of the changing weather. In the English mysteries of Martha Grimes, it is the bleak weather of England as seen through the leaded-glass windows of the cozy neighborhood pub. And in the gruesome murder mysteries of Patricia Cornwell, it is the aromatic Italian kitchen of coroner Kay Scarpetta.

David Newman, 66, an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter whose films included Bonnie and Clyde and the Superman movies, died in New York City on Thursday, five days after suffering a stroke. Mr. Newman, who began his career as an editor at Esquire magazine, penned screenplays for more than a dozen films, sometimes with his wife, Leslie Newman, other times with Robert Benton, director of Kramer vs. Kramer. Mr. Benton and Mr. Newman first came to prominence when they wrote the screenplay for Bonnie and Clyde, the 1967 film starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.

"Scarpetta's Winter Table," by Patricia Cornwell. Wyrick & Co. 80 pages. $19.95.Patricia Cornwell's fictional medical examiner Kay Scarpetta is known more for slicing and dicing bodies than for whipping up holiday recipes. But apparently there's more to the good doctor than meets the eye. In "Scarpetta's Winter Table" (Wyrick & Co., 80 pages, $19.95), Cornwell takes a break from her best-selling whodunits to show the softer sides of Scarpetta, her niece Lucy and her police sidekick, Pete Marino.

An article in yesterday's Maryland/Anne Arundel section stated that the county Police Department's internal investigation of a fatal shooting in Glen Burnie Monday night would take three days. The investigation will take at least two months. The officer involved in the shooting will be on administrative duty for three days.The Sun regrets the error.Anne Arundel County police are investigating the actions of a Northern District officer who fatally shot a Glen Burnie man at his home Monday night while intervening in a domestic dispute, police said.

"Point of Origin," by Patricia Cornwell. Putnam. 356 pages. $25.95.Cornwell's ninth thriller featuring Dr. Kay Scarpetta, Virginia's chief medical examiner, is the best yet.It's been five years since killer Carrie Grethen was incarcerated in a psychiatric center. Suddenly, Scarpetta gets a note from Carrie, indicating she's not done causing mayhem for Scarpetta and others."Point of Origin" moves with tension-building pace and Cornwell's characters are more highly developed than her previous works.

The beleaguered Fraternal Order of Police is fighting back against efforts by the Teamsters to represent county police officers.A member of the union representing more than 400 county police officers has asked for a criminal investigation of three members who support the Teamsters, and the local Fraternal Order of Police leadership has begun proceedings to oust those officers and two others from the union.In a countermove, the five officers have threatened to sue the FOP for libel, charging that the union's accusations have scarred their reputations with fellow officers.

The beleaguered Fraternal Order of Police is fighting back against efforts by the Teamsters to represent Anne Arundel County police officers.A member of the union representing more than 400 county police officers has asked for a criminal investigation of three members who support the Teamsters, and the local FOP leadership has begun proceedings to oust those officers and two others from the union. In a countermove, the five officers have threatened to sue the FOP for libel, charging that the union's accusations have scarred their reputations with fellow officers.

County police arrested a Baltimore man Wednesday and charged him with stealing $346 worth of clothes from Macy's in Marley Station mall.Kenneth Edward Walker, 21, of the 400 block of E. Stricker St. was charged with felony theft.Officer Peter Scarpetta, who was patrolling in the mall, said a man walked into the store about 8: 30 p.m. with a J.C. Penney bag and picked up three pairs of jeans, two shirts and a hat from store displays and put them into the bag.He walked out of the store without paying for the items, and Scarpetta stopped him and arrested him, police said.