Patricia Cornwell: Hornet's Nest (UK 1998)

From the Publisher:
Realistic and entertaining thriller which throws an ironic light on how to police a city.
Deputy Chief Virginia West likes and respects her boss, Hammer, but with an increasing number of visiting businessmen being murdered in her city by a maniac with a penchant for painting his victims bright orange, she finds it hard to accept Hammer's edict that a rookie reporter should ride on patrol with her to better relations with their citizens. Her worst fears are confirmed when the reporter, Brazil, presses the button to activate the boot-release rather than the siren on their first outing. He's not the only blight on her life right now: her cat's angsty, her hormones are misbehaving, her opposite number in the uniformed division is behaving like a jackass, the radio despatcher is determined to trip her up, the D.A. is in the middle of a hot battle with the trial schedule. And orange coloured corpses keep turning up on her patch.

Patricia Cornwell: Hornet's Nest. Sphere eBook, ISBN: 9780748109418 (September, 2008), £4.99.

Patricia Cornwell: Hornet's Nest (USA 1998)

From the Publisher:
Patricia Cornwell turns from forensics to police procedures in her latest novel, Hornet's Nest. This book is less a thriller than a character study of the main characters: Judy Hammer, chief of police in Charlotte, North Carolina; Hammer's deputy, Virginia West; and Andy Brazil, a young reporter assigned to ride with the police as they go about their jobs.

Patricia Cornwell: Hornet's Nest. Berkley Publishing Group; ISBN: 042516098X (February, 1998), 369 p., $7.99.

Patricia Cornwell: Hornet's Nest (UK 1998)

From the Publisher:
Realistic and entertaining thriller which throws an ironic light on how to police a city.
Deputy Chief Virginia West likes and respects her boss, Hammer, but with an increasing number of visiting businessmen being murdered in her city by a maniac with a penchant for painting his victims bright orange, she finds it hard to accept Hammer's edict that a rookie reporter should ride on patrol with her to better relations with their citizens. Her worst fears are confirmed when the reporter, Brazil, presses the button to activate the boot-release rather than the siren on their first outing. He's not the only blight on her life right now: her cat's angsty, her hormones are misbehaving, her opposite number in the uniformed division is behaving like a jackass, the radio despatcher is determined to trip her up, the D.A. is in the middle of a hot battle with the trial schedule. And orange coloured corpses keep turning up on her patch.

Patricia Cornwell: Hornet's Nest. Warner Books, ISBN: 0751520268 (February, 1998), 438 p., £5.99.

Patricia Cornwell: Hornet's Nest (UK 1997)

From the Publisher:
Violence is swarming is Charlotte, and Deputy chief Virginia West has a mood to match. Another out- of town businessman has been found murdered in his hire car, a wise-ass detective has taken her parking slot, the new police headquarters still resembles a construction site and her boss, is telling her to go out on Patrol as escort to a reporter. To Virginia the press is the enemy and her first encounter with Andy Brazil - lounging in her office taking notes while she was on the phone - raises her blood pressure as high as the headquarters of the US Bank Corporate Centre, which houses a whole bunch of other enemies.

Andy Brazil has two driving ambitions, either to be a writer or to be a cop, and the agreement between his publisher and chief of Police Judy Hammer allowing him to ride patrol is an opportunity beyond his wildest dreams, and the way he makes a complete fool of himself on his first outing is beyond his wildest nightmares.

However after a few routine calls. one hi-jacked ambulance and a murder scene, West grudgingly begins to acknowledge that Brazil is on her side; he's turning in positive copy for the news pages and doesn't set in the way, much. She also has other reasons for increasing her nicotine intake: departmental in-fighting, Court appearances, her boss coping with an obese husband and a never-ending stream of burglaries, busts and bodies.

Then, just as he begins to feel that he is winning West's and Hammer's confidence. Brazil discover; someone is stealing his stories, and he is uwittingly caught up in the power game being played between the city's leading lights.

With great style and, humour and empathy Patricia Cornwell brings policing a city to three-dimensional life with verve and fast-moving tensions. It is entertainment of the highest calibre.

Patricia Cornwell: Hornet's Nest. Summertime and the violence is swarming. Little, Brown, ISBN: 0316882534 (March, 1997), 375 p., £16.99.

Patricia Cornwell: Hornet's Nest (USA 1997)

From the Publisher:
The creator of Kay Scarpetta, the most fascinating character in contemporary crime fiction, now cunningly reveals the heart and soul of a metropolitan police department. With Charlotte as her simmering background, she propels us into the core of the force through the lives of a dynamic trio of heroes: Andy Brazil, an ambitious younger reporter for The Charlotte Observer and an eager - sometimes too eager-volunteer cop; Police Chief Judy Hammer, the professionally strong yet personally troubled guardian of Charlotte's law and order; and her deputy chief, Virginia West, a genuine head-turner who is married to her job. To walk the beat with Hammer, West, and Brazil is to learn the inner secrets of police work - the tension and the tedium, the hilarity and the heartbreak, the unexpected pump of adrenaline and the rush of courage that can lead to heroics ... or death.

Patricia Cornwell: Hornet's Nest. Putnam's, ISBN: 0399142282 (January, 1997), 377 p., $25.95.