Several contexts beyond the detective genre can be fruitful starting points for discussion of The Body Farm: literature and science, especially psychology; regionalism, especially writing about the rural South; and the use of religion in literature. As is always the case with Cornwell, she addresses mainstream issues as she tells her story: professional relationships between the sexes, difficult family relationships, if reasons exist for an optimistic world view. And this may be the best-suited of the Scarpetta novels for discussion of Cornwell's style. Readers could linger over particular passages and especially consider the religious allusions.

1. What do you make of the romantic triangle that develops among previously loyal compatriots Scarpetta, Marino, and Wesley? Is Cornwell suggesting that men and women can or cannot work closely together without experiencing sexual attraction? Is what happens in this novel particular to these characters, or suggestive of what happens in...