Murder and mayhem. Scarpetta is back, and she''s racing against the clock . . .
Chief medical examiner Kay Scarpetta is the reluctant star witness in a sensational murder trial when she receives shocking news. The judge''s sister has been found dead. At first glance, it appears to be a home invasion, but then why was nothing stolen, and why is the garden strewn with dead plants and insects?
Although there is no apparent cause of death, Scarpetta recognizes tell-tale signs of the unthinkable, and she knows the worst is yet to come. The forensic pathologist finds herself pitted against a powerful force that returns her to the past, and her time to catch the killer is running out . . .
''ONE OF THE BEST CRIME WRITERS WRITING TODAY'' GUARDIAN ''ASTONISHING . . . THIRTY YEARS ON, THERE''S STILL NO OTHER CRIME WRITER LIKE HER'' SUNDAY TIMES ''AMERICA''S MOST STIMULATING AND CHILLING WRITER OF CRIME FICTION'' THE TIMES
THE BREATHTAKING NEW KAY SCARPETTA THRILLER FROM THE 120-MILLION-COPY BESTSELLER The morning after North Virginia''s deadliest Halloween on record, forensic pathologist Kay Scarpetta is pulled away from her caseload to investigate a chilling crime.
She arrives in the wilderness to find one body floating in the lake, and another twenty feet down an abandoned mineshaft - both mutilated almost beyond recognition. It can be no coincidence that the couple were killed on the verge of their arrest for cybercrimes.
After the most terrifying body retrievals of her career, Scarpetta must discover who would commit murders this savage, and why.
After working on one of the worst mass killings in US history, Chief Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta returns to Cambridge to recover. But it's not long before she receives an unsettling call...
On the trail of a serial killer, Dr Kay Scarpetta follows the forensic footprints of a victim's life, unconvinced that the murder is the work of the same killer. She begins to believe someone is on the point of releasing the smallpox virus back into a world which has destroyed all vaccine stocks.
A cargo ship arriving at Richmond, Virginia's Deep Water Terminal from Belgium is discovered to be transporting a locked, sealed container holding the decomposed remains of a stowaway. Scarpetta's post mortem reveals no cause of death or ID and sets her on a mission that could ruin her career.
Told for the first time in many years from the perspective of Kay Scarpetta herself - and unveiling secrets from her past that have never been revealed
The fifth book in the Kay Scarpetta series, from No. 1 bestselling author Patricia Cornwell. ''America''s most chilling writer of crime fiction'' The Times The Body Farm - a research institute that tests the decomposition of corpses. Black Mountain, North Carolina: a sleepy little town where the local police deal with one homicide a year, if they''re unlucky, and where people are still getting used to the idea of locking their doors at night. But violent death is no respecter of venue, and the discovery of the corpse of the corpse of an 11-year-old girl sends shock waves through the community. Dr Kay Scarpetta, Chief medical Examiner on a similar case in Virginia, is called in to apply her forensic skills to this latest atrocity, but the apparent simplicity of the case proves something of a poisoned chalice - until Scarpetta finds enlightenment through the curious pathologists'' playground known as the Body Farm . . . Praise for the groundbreaking series: ''One of the best crime writers writing today '' Guardian '' Devilishly clever '' Sunday Times '' The top gun in this field '' Daily Telegraph '' Forget the pretenders. Cornwell reigns '' Mirror '' The Agatha Christie of the DNA age '' Express
