Forensic pathologist Kay Scarpetta has come almost full circle, returning to Virginia as the chief medical examiner, the state where she launched her storied career. Finding herself the new girl in town once again after being away for many years, shes inherited not only an overbearing secretary, but also a legacy of neglect and potential corruption. She and her husband Benton Wesley, now a forensic psychologist with the U.S. Secret Service, have relocated...

Newly appointed Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. Kay Scarpetta faces the challenge of her career as she threads her way through a maze of political machinations, professional jealousy, and mysterious forensic evidence to find a serial killer terrorizing Richmond.

Patricia Cornwell submerges Dr. Kay Scarpetta in a labyrinthine case that wraps a web of danger around those closest to her and threatens to wreak fear and death far beyond the confines of Virginia. New Year's Eve and the final murder scene of Virginia's bloodiest year since the Civil War takes Scarpetta thirty feet below the Elizabeth River's icy surface. A scuba diver, Ted Eddings, is dead, an investigative reporter who was a favorite at the Medical...

Body of Evidence: "After months of menacing phone calls and feeling that her every move is being watched, successful writer Beryl Madison flees Key West when a terrifying message is scratched on her car. But the very night she returns to Richmond, she deactivates her burglar alarm and opens her door to someone who nearly decapitates her. Why did she let him in, wonders Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta? And why is Beryl's latest manuscript...