On October 16, 1999, mystery writer Patricia Cornwell met with her many fans to discuss and sign copies of The Last Precinct --- her newest book featuring medical examiner Dr. Kay Scapetta.  The event took place at the Barnes & Noble store at Union Square, New York City.

• Photo: The event began with an introduction by Linda Fairstein, a real-life district attorney who is known as the 'sex-crime prosecutor' of New York City and is an author in her own right.  
• Photo:  The format of this event is totally Q&A only, without any preceding talk.  The event was also webcast live on Yahoo! and therefore had the artificiality of a contrived event in which members of the audience were handed microphones so that their questions are audible to both the live and webcast audience.  What is our reporter doing at this event?  Well, the two heads on the left in the very first row belongs to the "Editors" of the Central Park Track Club, Stuart Calderwood and Stacy Creamer.
• Photo: The event went on for exactly the scheduled full hour.  But just as we despaired of seeing our two teammates in action, the final question was given to Patricia Cornwell's editor, Stacy Creamer.  It had appeared to Stacy that this latest book, The Last Precinct, gave different perspectives and re-interpretation of certain events in the preceding book, Black Notice and so she wondered if that was in fact the intent.  However, our author said that she really did not know what she was going to do after finish Black Notice and this was just how it turned out.

TECHNICAL NOTE:  We would have taken a few more photos except that the security guards told us to put away our camera.  This was in direct contradiction to the announced rules ("please, no flashbulb cameras!").  Why did they say one thing and do another?  The security guards said, "Because Amanda said so."  Well, that is good enough for us.  We don't know who Amanda is, but we are sure that some of the members of the Central Park Track Club would like to hire her to set up certain "no photo zones" or "no photo hours" for our club events ...

OTHER LINKS:  Meet Patricia Cornwell: Black Notice (August 1999)