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Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
Aug 1999, 415 pages
Paperback:
Aug 2000, 464 pages
Black Notice puts Dr. Kay Scarpetta directly in harm's way and places her and those she holds dear at mortal risk.
"Patricia Cornwell lights a fire under familiar characters--and sparks her hottest adventure in years," wrote People magazine about Point of Origin, the instant #1 bestseller by America's premier crime writer. "Evil always smolders when it seems to be doused," said The Atlanta Constitution. "Scarpettans know to keep their security systems armed until the next installment."
Now Cornwell delivers a high-stakes Kay Scarpetta novel with an intrigue that will take Kay an ocean's length away from home. The nightmare begins when a cargo ship arriving at Richmond's Deep Water Terminal from Belgium is discovered to be transporting a locked, sealed container holding the decomposed remains of a stowaway.
The autopsy performed by Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta initially reveals neither a cause of death nor an identification. But the victim's personal effects and an odd tattoo take Scarpetta on a hunt for information that leads to INTERPOL's headquarters in Lyon, France, where she receives critical instructions: go to the Paris morgue to receive forbidden, secret evidence and then return to Virginia to carry out a mission. It is a mission that could ruin her career.
In a story that careens across international borders, Black Notice puts Dr. Kay Scarpetta directly in harm's way and places her and those she holds dear at mortal risk.
Story continued in The Last Precinct.
The narrow road led me through a vacant land of
weeds and woods that ended abruptly at a security checkpoint. I felt as if I
were crossing the border into an unfriendly country. Beyond was a train yard
and hundreds of -boxcar---size orange containers stacked three and four
high. A guard who took his job very seriously stepped outside his booth. I
rolled down my window.
"May I help you, ma'am?" he asked in a flat military tone.
"I'm Dr. Kay Scarpetta," I replied.
"And who are you here to see?"
"I'm here because there's been a death," I explained. "I'm
the medical examiner." I showed him my credentials. He took them from
me and studied them carefully. I had a feeling he -didn't know what a
medical examiner was and -wasn't about to ask.
"So -you're the chief," he said, handing the worn black wallet
back to me. "The chief of what?"
"I'm the chief medical examiner of Virginia,...
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