Patricia Cornwell, the best-selling crime novelist and creator of popular protagonist Dr. Kay Scarpetta, is out with a new book starring Scarpetta called Dust and has a TV pilot on the way.

Patricia Cornwell Talks Sandy Hook

In Dust, named for the fluorescent colors that manifest upon using an ultraviolent light in forensics, Cornwell made the bold decision to incorporate the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting. “I try to keep Scarpetta in the world that the rest of us inhabit, and it’s a painful decision sometimes because I could look the other way. But I don’t think that’s the right thing to do,” Cornwell told Uinterview exclusively. The author further clarified that it’s the emotional toll and not the violent act itself that found its way into the novel.

“What we see in the beginning of Dust is not that case itself, because I never take you there. We see the aftermath in [Scarpetta’s] own emotions, when she comes home and immediately comes down with the flu,” said Cornwell. “We haven’t seen her really quite that devastated by the cases that she works on, although they have a strong effect on her. She’s now squared up against a very different monster in modern times, not just in terms of what happened in Newton.”

Patricia Cornwell On New TV Pilot

Up next for Cornwell is a TV pilot. While Scarpetta is the writer’s main concentration, other characters do cross her mind – one of which will have its story told on television. “I thought, ‘You know what? Wouldn’t it be fun to create some really great characters for television?’” Cornwell said to Uinterview. “The first one I’ve been working on is a young woman who is a police investigator with very special talents and a very unusual past. Her name is Greta Stone.”

Cornwell is working on the pilot for ABC, and believes that Stone will be both likeable and fascinating as a protagonist of the drama series.

Read Patricia Cornwell’s Full Interview With Uinterview Here