Writers don't get much bigger than Patricia Cornwell. Famous the world over thanks to her series of novels starring Dr Kay Scarpetta, she's estimated to be worth US$100 million and rumoured to earn advances of about US$10 million. Now firmly established in the pantheon of great literary detectives, Scarpetta's latest adventure - a haunting thriller called The Book of the Dead - is certain to be No1 on best-seller lists across the globe.
Cornwell's flamboyant private life has proved almost as exciting as her plots. Having taken to fame and fortune like a cop to doughnuts, she's been stalked, arrested, divorced, worshipped, vilified, mocked and threatened. Her sexuality has been a topic of constant gossip, while her claim that she solved the mystery of Jack the Ripper (she suspects British painter Walter Sickert) made headlines.
Just how influential Cornwell is doesn't reveal itself until she talks about Iraq. It's a subject that's preoccupied her both creatively and personally of late. The serial killer wreaking havoc in The Book of the Dead is pointedly a veteran of the second Gulf war. Cornwell has become an increasingly outspoken opponent of what she describes as the 'atmosphere of hatred and bigotry in the United States'.
Having 'avoided politics rather stringently in my earlier works', it was not an easy stand to take. A formerly staunch Republican, and avowed supporter of George W. Bush, she says her opposition to the war cost her friends in the highest of places. 'Considering that once a year I used to spend a weekend at Kennebunkport with Big George, as I called him, and Barbara Bush, it was hard to say what I really think. Which is that [George W. Bush] is the worst president we've ever had, and that I'm appalled by what he's done. I'm appalled by the Republican Party supporting his saying, 'I can do it my way, I don't care what anyone else thinks'.'
Apparently cured of her reticence, Cornwell pauses. 'I won't get invited to Kennebunkport again,' she says dryly. 'Too bad. It's difficult to be critical of somebody when you know their family. But I'm sorry, I don't care. I'm going to tell the truth. When you've lived half a century, you care a bit less about some things than you used to.'
Speaking her mind and telling the truth are themes Cornwell returns to again and again when we meet at London's Dorchester Hotel. Its splendidly opulent decor is perfect for an encounter that has more than a touch of the royal audience about it - not for nothing has Cornwell been dubbed 'the Empress of Crime'.