Review: True Crime by Patricia Cornwell

True Crime: A Memoir

by Patricia Cornwell

Release Date: May 5, 2026

2026 Grand Central Publishing

Hard Cover ARC; 464 Pages

ISBN: 978-1538778449

ASIN: B0FTWDWQ47

Audiobook: B0FY85VMQ5

Genre: Non-Fiction / Memoir

Source: Review copy from publisher

 

3 / 5 Stars

 

Summary

In this achingly honest memoir, Cornwell excavates her own life, detailing her traumatic childhood being raised by neglectful parents, her father abandoning the young family on Christmas day, her mother being institutionalised twice, an abusive foster family, and developing a parental relationship with evangelist Billy Graham's wife Ruth. Cornwell depicts a harrowing hospitalisation and near-death car accident. She unflinchingly shares overcoming obstacles that later gave her the ambition to become an award-winning police reporter. From there it was research in a medical examiner's office that would turn into a full-time job. She would become a forensic expert and worldwide publishing phenomenon.

 

My Thoughts

True Crime is one of those memoirs to which I was looking forward because I had a vested interest in the Kay Scarpetta series when they were first published.  My interest has since waned for a variety of reasons, but I still remember those early days and having a female Chief Medical Examiner as a lead in a murder mystery series was exciting and interesting. Patricia Cornwell has definitely had a very interesting life, one that has been fairly unstable, full of abuse and trauma, and I am not really here to rate that aspect of the book, but the overall way in which she shares her story was somewhat rambling and a bit annoying and this is what I am reviewing.

 

By the first half of the book, the author is barely out of high school with a full memory of things that have happened to her.  I am not questioning the trauma, the abuse, the neglect, etc..., and she certainly shares a lot of traumatic episodes with us, but I do sort of question the level of detail, although her journals may have helped with that.  What I can't recall is when she actually started keeping journals as I don't remember her mentioning them when she was younger, only as she grew older and developed bulimia. 

 

For a writer with as many awards for her books as she has, I would have expected this memoir to be more concise and less rambling than it was, but it was all over the place, jumping from topic to topic constantly. She also seemed to jump quite quickly past topics where she should have taken more responsibility for her actions, but seemed to gloss right over those as if they just happened, she got lucky she wasn't charged, and just moved on to the next thing which sort of a left a bad taste in my mouth.  It made it seem like she felt more lucky and didn't really seem to acknowledge the risks and danger she put others in.  Comments like 'Everyone used to to this' just don't really fly when you should be responsible for your actions.   

 

I did think the work she did for in a medical examiner's office was interesting and I did find it fascinating to learn about some of the things she did as research for her books.  But even some of that comes off as bragging as she has this tendency to gloss over some of the more interesting things to name drop, discuss her house or car purchases, etc..., and because this happens repeatedly, it got old, fast.  There were some really amazing things that happened, some important ones, but those were just mentioned in passing; however, we did get to read two pages about the great car she purchased and was grateful she wasn't driving the night she crashed because she was drunk. And even then she blamed her actions on the medication she was taking. Um, when you drink, what do you think could happen?  

 

Verdict

True Crime definitely had some very interesting aspects to it and I appreciated how much research she did while writing her novels. She worked in a morgue, volunteered with the local police force and ambulance, spent time at the Body Farm, learned how to fly helicopters, and a lot of other interesting things. But I really felt like she was being very guarded with regards to this memoir and didn't really share much about what she has been doing these last years as most of it was spent on her childhood.  By the end of the book, while I can empathize with the trauma and abuse she suffered as a child, I still am not sure how that fueled her writing.  She did say that authors are very jealous of each other so maybe she didn't want to share that aspect for this reason, but in the end, I don't feel like I really got to know her, what she really likes to do other than play tennis, and all of it is superficial. Again, authors can reveal as much as they want, but I would have expected something a bit tighter in its writing and this one rambled too much, glossing over things that seemed important.   

 

Review: Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis by Priscilla Beaulieu Presley

Softly, as I Leave You: Life After Elvis

by Priscilla Beaulieu Presley (with Mary Jane Ross)

Release Date: September 23, 2025

2025 Grand Central Publishing

Hardcover Edition; 336 Pages

ISBN: 978-0306836480

ASIN: B0F3JFWH99

Audiobook: B0F5RN1K5L

Genre: Non-Fiction / Memoir

Source: Review copy from publisher

 

2.75 / 5 Stars

 

Summary

Softly, As I Leave You, is the deeply personal story of what Priscilla lost and what she found when she walked away from the man she loved. Despite the legal separation, their love for one another transformed into a touching and tender dynamic that endured until Elvis’s untimely death four years later. Shattered by Elvis’s passing, she had to reinvent herself a second time as the single mother of a talented, often headstrong daughter who never really recovered from her father’s death. Priscilla’s dedication to motherhood was enriched by the birth of her second child, and she gradually found her footing as a businesswoman, actress, designer, and legislative advocate. She transformed Graceland into an international destination and helped guide the development of Elvis Presley Enterprises. But the unexpected, shattering loss of three immediate family members years later brought Priscilla to her knees. She shares her journey with a quiet dignity that will comfort and reassure anyone who has suffered – and survived – seemingly unbearable loss.

 

My Thoughts

Softly, as I Leave You is the story about Priscilla Beaulieu Presley's life after she decided to leave Elvis Presley and start a new life that was different from the one she experienced while living at Graceland. While I was reading the book however, I was really questioning the motive behind the book, so it took me quite a while to write this review as I wanted my thoughts to be clear and respectful, but it is hard. On the one hand, I did feel like I learned a couple of new things with respect to her relationship with Elvis and her personal life, but on the other hand, I felt like I was reading about someone who was just telling a story about someone else instead of their own personal story as it felt unemotional and disconnected. What that her way of protecting herself over the loss of her daughter and grandson? It's hard to say without really knowing the person which is why this review is difficult to write.

 

There were a lot of interesting parts to this book, and even though I had read Lisa Marie's biography, there were quite a few things that I didn't know. Which made me wonder. Was this some type of damage control, something in response to the other book? There were parts of this book that questioned Lisa Marie's truth and that sort of made me feel...icky, to say the least.  I realize there are always two sides to a story, and I'm not saying that I am taking Lisa Marie's side or anything, it's just that the writing didn't feel authentic in the same way as it lacked the emotional power, that raw feeling when someone is speaking from their soul. The author does spent a lot of time defending her actions, repeating quite often how difficult it was to raise Elvis Presley's child and what that entails, but doesn't really go into any details.  She also mentions a lot of people who were in her life, but again, doesn't really mention how they continue to play a role in her life in meaningful ways. And that is probably what this book lacks, meaningful discussion.  

 

What was difficult for me is how she never really admits to her faults and the mistakes she has made which is what makes a memoir usually so poignant and wonderful.  No one is perfect, something she points out consistently about Elvis. But she tries to justify everything she has done, which is fine, but at least own up to your part in what happened. And one of those justifications is about how and when she met Elvis at just fourteen years old and moved into his house at 17. Sorry, but you can't hide behind the 60s as this being a normal thing as it wasn't.  She mentions how she was a dutiful daughter in one sentence, yet in another, how she threatened to run away if she didn't get her way. In a way, this sort of represents a lot of the contradictions in this book. However, I definitely could not imagine living in the environment at Graceland as it would have been difficult living with the constant attention surrounding Elvis. something I think she actually downplayed in the book. 

 

If Elvis had died in bed at ninety, surrounded by his daughter, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, his last years would have been treated with respect. But instead, he died face down on the bathroom carpet with an overload of drugs in his system. That reality has colored the public understanding of him ever since. It created a false perception. Elvis was a remarkable human being. Yes, he was flawed, as all of us are, but he was a flawed diamond. He was passionate, loving, generous, artistically brilliant, and utterly unique. I want the world to remember the man I remember, ever more clearly with the passage of time. I want to give Elvis a voice, to say the things he never got to. I want to represent him publicly for the man he was.  

 

I highlighted this passage because I was like, what? Yes, the man died of a drug overdose, but there are many who admire Elvis for his music. I think it's Priscilla who maybe has the issue, and personally, it sounds as if she never moved on, but because Elvis is not here to share his side of the story, we will never really know what happened. The people I feel sorry for in this situation are her children, Lisa Marie and Navarone. Her son doesn't have a drop of Presley blood in his him, but I felt like she really, really wanted to make it so, even talking about his inherited musical talent. Um, he would not have inherited that from Elvis, that's for sure.  Personally, I was wondering how Navarone felt about the entire situation and what his relationship was with his sister and the rest of the family.  

 

Verdict

Softly, As I Leave You was definitely a mixed bag for me as I appreciated learning some new things about Priscilla and her life, but at the same time, I felt like this was such a superficial retelling as the emotion was somewhat lacking considering the book felt more like a justification for her actions rather than a memoir.  Yes, this woman had been through a lot, but I still felt like this book was written in order to make herself look like a better mother in light of Lisa Marie's book. Now that is a book I would recommend reading. And while this wasn't a complete waste of time as many of the anecdotes were interesting, especially the ones about the animals, and I liked learning about her animal activism, at the same time, nothing was mentioned in this book about how she sued her granddaughter for rights over Graceland, but consistently talked about how they were this big, happy family. I couldn't get past the fact she always seem to paint Lisa as the person with all of the personal issues while painting her son as perfect, and just couldn't acknowledge how her actions affected those around her.