A gruesome thriller starring Nicole Kidman Nicole Kidman plays a Virginia medical examiner in “Scarpetta,” based on the character created by Patricia Cornwell. Connie Chornuk/Prime Dear Watchers, Kay Scarpetta, the author Patricia Cornwell’s formidable, no-nonsense forensic pathologist, would seem tailor-made for TV. Yet it took 36 years and 29 novels for Kay to get her first onscreen appearance, in the new Amazon series “Scarpetta” — premiering Wednesday on Prime Video.