Patricia Cornwell sues financial managers over loss of $40 million

October 22, 3:37 PMMystery Series ExaminerCarol Thomas

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For mystery series writer Patricia Cornwell, it has been the best of times . . . and it has been the worst of times. The acclaimed author of the Kay Scarpetta series, the Andy Brazil series and the Winston Garano series made headlines in 2008 when the Lifetime Movie Network announced that it would produce a film adaptation of her Winston Garano series in 2010. That annoucement was followed by Variety.com's April 21, 2009 revelation of a "killer deal" with Fox 2000 for ilm rights to the author's Kay Scarpetta series and of the casting of Angelina Jolie in the role of Kay Scarpetta.

 Patricia Cornwell's financial problems have provided
an unwelcome interruption to her book tour promoting
The Scarpetta Factor.

Cornwell is back in the news today for less pleasant reasons. She has announced that she is suing her financial management company for negligence that caused her to lose $40 million.

In an October 22, 2009 report in The Daily Beast writer Lloyd Grove reveals that Cornwell alleges that the money management firm of Anchin, Block & Anchin LLP mishandled both her own funds and those of her spouse, Harvard neuroscientist Staci Gruber. Gruber and Cornwell have been married for two years.

Cornwell is currently touring to promote the 17th title in her Kay Scarpetta series, The Scarpetta Factor, which was just released on October 20. Although she has declined to comment on the lawsuit, her attorney, Joan Lukey, made the following statement:

Patricia has found this process to be very distracting and upsetting, but I think she has some level of comfort knowing that the lawsuit has been filed and is now in the hands of the court.

Meanwhile, work is continuing on the Lifetime Television adaptations of the first two novels in Cornwell's Winston Garano series, At Risk (2006) and The Front (2008). A Limelife article also published today quotes actress Andie MacDowell's description of her leading role in both films as the ambitious Boston district attorney, Monique Lamont. "I play a real bitch," says MacDowell. "I was a narcissistic sex addict and had to sleep with young men."

Also slated to star in the Lifetime movie is Daniel Sunjata, who plays investigator Win Garano. Ashley Williams, who also appeared in Lifetime's Nora Roberts' Montana Sky, has the role of Stump, a detective with whom Garano becomes romantically involved. Diahann Carroll plays Garano's grandmother, Nana. Annabeth Gish is Garano's co-worker, Sykes.