After attaining a B.A. in English from Davidson College, Cornwell married one of her professors, a Charles Cornwell, though was divorced in 1989.

Later, her work for the Chief Medical Examiner Of Virginia's office and the Richmond Police Department, served to prepare Ms. Cornwell to write her first successful mystery novel, Postmortem, in 1990. Since it's publication, Ms. Cornwell has published novels most years to date, all very successful, proving the existence of a huge fan base.

1. "Benton Wesley was taking off his running shoes in my kitchen when I ran to him, my heart tripping over fear and hate and remembered horror"
2. "I know from Lucy's voice that she is scared. Rarely is my brilliant, forceful, helicopter-piloting, fitness-obsessed, federal-law-enforcement-agent niece scared"
3. "Night fell clean and cold in Dublin, and wind moaned beyond my room as if a million pipes played the air"
4. "On the last morning of Virginia's bloodiest year since the Civil War, I built a fire and sat facing a window of darkness where at sunrise I knew I would find the sea"
5. "That morning, summer sulked and gathered darkly over Charlotte, and heat shimmered on pavement. Traffic teemed, people pushing forward to promise as they drove through new construction, and the past was bulldozed away"