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Published Oct 2007
416 pages
Genre: Thrillers
Publication Information
The "book of the dead" is the morgue log, a ledger in which all cases are entered by hand. For Kay Scarpetta, however, it is about to take on a new meaning. Fresh from her bruising battle with a psychopath in Florida, Scarpetta decides it's time for a change of pace, not only personally and professionally but geographically. Moving to the historic city of Charleston, South Carolina, she opens a unique private forensic pathology practice, one in which she and her colleagues - including Pete Marino and her niece, Lucy - offer expert crime-scene investigation and autopsy services to communities lacking local access to modern, competent death investigation t
And that's before the murders and other violent deaths even begin: A young man from a well-known family jumps off a water tower. A woman is found ritualistically murdered in her multimillion-dollar beach home. The body of an abused young boy is discovered dumped in a desolate marsh. Kay Scarpetta has dealt with many brutal and unusual crimes before, but never a string of them as baffling, or as terrifying, as the ones confronting her now.
"[T]he abrupt shifts in point of view slow the momentum, and the reader flounders in excessive forensic minutiae. " - Publishers Weekly.
"What's most distinctive about this venerable franchise is the kitchen-sink plotting; the soap-opera melodrama that prevents any given volume from coming to a satisfying end; and the emphasis on titanic battles between Scarpetta and a series of Antichrists. Proceed at your own risk. " - Kirkus Reviews.
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
New York Times bestselling novelist Patricia Daniels Cornwell is the
only woman in the United States to receive England's coveted Gold Dagger,
widely considered to be the most prestigious crime-writing award in the world.
A former award-winning police reporter for the Charlotte Observer,
Cornwell worked for more than six years as a computer analyst in the chief
medical examiner's office in Virginia, where she witnessed hundreds of
autopsies and even assisted as a "scribe," recording the measurements of the
wounds of murder victims. During that time, she also was a volunteer with the
Richmond Police Department, and has spent time with law enforcement around the
world.
Those experiences inspired her to create Dr. Kay Scarpetta, a tenacious chief
medical examiner who tracks ...
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