"Scarpetta's Winter Table," by Patricia Cornwell. Wyrick & Co. 80 pages. $19.95.

Patricia Cornwell's fictional medical examiner Kay Scarpetta is known more for slicing and dicing bodies than for whipping up holiday recipes. But apparently there's more to the good doctor than meets the eye. In "Scarpetta's Winter Table" (Wyrick & Co., 80 pages, $19.95), Cornwell takes a break from her best-selling whodunits to show the softer sides of Scarpetta, her niece Lucy and her police sidekick, Pete Marino.

Written as a novella, "Scarpetta's Winter Table" follows Scarpetta and friends as they gather to celebrate the days between Christmas and New Year with their favorite foods. And, along the way, they manage to rescue a delinquent child.

Most of the 10 chapters feature a recipe concocted by one of the principal characters, from Marino's "cause-of-death eggnog" to Scarpetta's famous pizza.

Because she writes about food in her novels, Cornwell kept getting requests from readers for recipes. The book began as a book of favorite recipes of the characters.

Pub Date: 10/25/98