Promotional Information

Dr Kay Scarpetta returns to face new challenges in Patricia Cornwell's internationally acclaimed series.

About the Author

Patricia Cornwell is the 2008 winner of the Galaxy British Book Awards' Books Direct Crime Thriller of the Year the first American ever to win this prestigious award. Postmortem was the only novel to win five major crime awards in a single year and Cruel and Unusual won the coveted Gold Dagger Award in 1993.

Reviews

Bestseller Cornwell's solid 17th thriller to feature Dr. Kay Scarpetta (after Scarpetta) finds Scarpetta-who's the senior forensic analyst for CNN-probing the murder of a Central Park jogger as well as looking into the disappearance of Hannah Starr, a wealthy financial planner. Quizzed on-air about previously undisclosed details of the perplexing Starr case, Scarpetta realizes that the tentacles of the case reach further than she imagined. Her niece, forensic computer whiz Lucy Farinelli, has her own reasons for digging into Starr's disappearance, along with Lucy's girlfriend, New York County ADA Jaime Berger. NYPD Det. Pete Marino, another series staple, is also in the loop as a member of Berger's task force. But it's the dark past of Scarpetta's psychologist husband, Benton Wesley-particularly his presumed death in Point of Origin and shocking reappearance five years later in Blow Fly-that binds the disparate pieces together and make this one of Cornwell's stronger recent efforts. (Oct.) Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.

The 17th entry in the popular Scarpetta series (after Scarpetta) finds the Massachusetts medical examiner investigating the death of jogger Toni Darien in Central Park-and finding suspicious similarities to a case of a missing financier. She also must contend with a suspicious package delivered to her apartment, the possible theft of her BlackBerry, menacing communications from a former psychiatric patient of husband Benton, and the reemergence of notorious characters from past cases. Never-before-seen glimpses into the innermost thoughts of key characters Pete Marino, Benton, and niece Lucy Farinelli intensify the plot. Verdict A finely crafted, pulse-racing thriller that readers won't want to put down. Scarpetta fans will notice more pages devoted to character development and less to the autopsy room. [Main selection of BOMC, Literary Guild, Doubleday Book Club, and Mystery Guild.]-Mary Todd Chesnut, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.