Scarpetta, a crime thriller series about a prolific forensic pathologist who uses advanced forensic technology to solve crimes in Virginia, premiered on Prime Video on Wednesday.

The eight-episode first season — starring Nicole Kidman as the titular Dr. Kay Scarpetta, Jamie Lee Curtis as Scarpetta’s troubled older sister Dorothy Farinelli, and Bobby Cannavale as former detective Pete Marino — took decades to reach the screen and marks a major moment for true-crime fans.

Here’s more about the show and the real-life pioneering chief medical examiner who inspired Scarpetta:

The show unfolds across two timelines, with Rosy McEwen portraying a younger Scarpetta

Scarpetta unfolds across two timelines, with Kidman and Rosy McEwen portraying the titular character at different points in her life.

In McEwen’s timeline, Scarpetta and Marino — played by Jake Cannavale, the real-life son of Bobby Cannavale — are investigating a string of murders believed to be the work of a serial killer. A young Scarpetta is also fighting to establish herself in the male-dominated world of forensic science while navigating a complicated personal life, including a budding romance with FBI agent Benton Wesley (Hunter Parrish). Scarpetta’s tech-savvy niece Lucy (Savannah Lumar) also plays a key role in this world.

In Kidman’s timeline, a now adult Scarpetta and Benton, who are married, move back to their hometown in Virginia. A young woman has recently been killed in the town, and her murder seems to be related to Scarpetta and Marino’s earlier case. The latter married Farinelli, and the couple, along with Lucy (Ariana DeBose), live with Scarpetta on her large estate.

Kidman and Curtis also serve as executive producers on the Amazon Prime Video series, which received an automatic Season 2 order when it was announced in September 2024, Elle reported. 

While the show is not inspired by real events, it is based on Patricia Cornwell’s popular series of murder-mystery novels featuring Scarpetta. According to The Virginian-Pilot, the book series, now more than 20 novels long, was loosely inspired by the South Side Strangler murders in Richmond, Virginia. The series begins with Cornwell’s 1989 debut novel, Postmortem, which serves as the primary basis for the show’s first season. The series is also based on Cornwell’s 2021 novel Autopsy, the author’s 25th Scarpetta novel, according to Boston.com.

Cornwell told The Virginian-Pilot that there have been many attempts to translate her Scarpetta novels to the small screen. 

“Scarpetta has been in options, literally, since 1989,” she told the outlet. 

Several actors had previously been attached to play Scarpetta over the years, including Demi Moore and Angelina Jolie, according to The Los Angeles Times. But it wasn’t until 2021, when Jamie Lee Curtis joined yet another attempt to bring Patricia Cornwell’s beloved novels to the small screen, that the adaptation finally moved forward.

It all started with a phone call between Curtis and Cornwell, during which the actor asked the author, “What’s going on with ‘Scarpetta?’” 

“I said, ‘Well, right now, nothing,’” Cornwell told The Virginian-Pilot. “So much of anything is timing, and who has a passion about it, and she had a passion about making this happen. And because of who she is, she can open doors. And next thing you know, (showrunner) Liz Sarnoff got involved, and she’d been reading ‘Scarpetta,’ for many, many years. This isn’t somebody that just wanted to make something, but it mattered to her, because she always loved the books. She and her mother used to read them together, she told me. And so it started building from there.”

Cornwell’s Scarpetta is inspired by real-life Virginia chief medical examiner Dr. Marcella Fierro, who the author first reached out to in 1984, South Coast Today reported.

“I would not be where I am today in my life were it not for Dr. Fierro,” Cornwell shared with the outlet. 

Though Fierro is the woman behind Scarpetta, the former medical examiner said the two have very little in common. 

“Kay is blond, blue-eyed and 115 pounds,” Fierro told South Coast Today. “I’ve never been blond, I have brown eyes, and I haven’t weighed 115 pounds since I was 12.”

Scarpetta Season 1 is now streaming on Prime Video.