How Prime Video’s New Crime Series Scarpetta Adapts Its 29-Book Source Material Explained By Star

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Simon Baker's Brenton looking in thought in an FBI tent in Scarpetta

Published Mar 10, 2026, 11:00 AM EDT

Prime Video has its next novel-based crime series right around the corner with Scarpetta, and one of its stars is discussing ties to the books.

Developed by Lost alum Liz Sarnoff from Patricia Cornwell's novel series, the Prime Video show centers on Nicole Kidman as the titular forensic pathologist who moves back to her hometown nearly 30 years after leaving her position as a Chief Medical Examiner. While she is confronted by many demons from her past and fixing such relationships as with that of her sister Dorothy, Kay also investigates a new string of murders seemingly tied to her career-making case.

In honor of the show's premiere, ScreenRant's Liam Crowley interviewed Ariana DeBose and Bobby Cannavale to discuss Scarpetta. When asked about their familiarity with Cornwell's novels and any homework done going into the show, DeBose joked that she's seen "all the billboards" for the books, with Cannavale similarly echoing them as being "ubiquitous" and praising the "very good advertising person" behind making their presence felt "everywhere."

However, the two-time Emmy winner went on to confess "I personally hadn't read them" prior to or during production of Scarpetta, being introduced to its world and characters through the "fantastic" script penned by Sarnoff. He then went on to recall his first meeting with the nine-time Emmy-nominated showrunner, where she "laid out how she was going to combine this cinematic aspect with the written genre" to bring the novels to life in an exciting fashion:

Bobby Cannavale: [The way Liz wanted to] let the audience follow and track these relationships over a 30-year span was a really interesting way to do it. The characters are iconic for the people who have read them. It's like over a 100 million books have been sold. But at the end of the day, you just want to be in something that's written really well and has really good actors in it. And that sort of came with the package. It was Nicole, it was Jamie, it was Ariana, it was Simon, and that's easy to sign onto.

While DeBose and Cannavale may not have poured through the pages of the source material, that doesn't mean Sarnoff didn't do so herself for Scarpetta's story. With it chronicling both her return to her hometown, and both a present and past murder investigation, the primary novels the show is pulling from are those of 1990's Postmortem and 2020's Autopsy, the former of which launched the book series.

What's yet unclear is just how the Prime Video series will merge the narratives of these two novels into one story. One of the more notable curiosities for fans of Cornwell's books is that Kay and Benton Wesley, played by The Mentalist's Simon Baker have been married a long time by the events of the 2020 installment, with the marketing confirming not only are they already married, but had a relationship in the 1990s-set timeline of the show. Given they had an on-again-off-again affair through multiple novels, the show may well be skipping past this entirely.

But regardless of how the show ultimately combines Postmortem and Autopsy's stories into one narrative, Cannavale's assurance of Sarnoff wanting to stay true to the relationships of the Scarpetta novels should come as exciting for those who have waited to see them brought to life. Prior to the Prime Video series, multiple efforts had been made to adapt the books, including movies led by Demi Moore and Angelina Jolie, making the new project a big step for the franchise.

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Additionally, with the show's first season adapting two novels, Scarpetta's future still has plenty of legs to keep things going. At the time of writing, 29 novels have been released, making it equivalent to the Alan Ritchson-led Reacher and Titus Welliver-starring Bosch in how Sarnoff could keep the Prime Video crime series going for years to come by adapting one or multiple books at a time with each new season.

Scarpetta is set to premiere on Prime Video on March 11.