Book description
Florida is full of human predators, and they all give Dr Kay Scarpetta
the opportunity and the means to do what she does best - persuading the
dead to speak to her. And in Boston, Benton Wesley is working on a
secret case involving convicted killers. It is a project which gives
Scarpetta deep disquiet, as does the behaviour of her niece, Lucy, who
is spending too much time in cheap bars looking for casual pick-ups. The
Academy is called when a woman's body is found in Boston. She has been
tortured, sexually abused, her body tattooed with handprints. The same
sort of handprints Lucy had seen on the flesh of her latest pick-up.
Meanwhile, Scarpetta and Marino are investigating the disappearance of a
family in Florida, called in by a concerned neighbour, but as they
search and find the tell-tale signs of abduction rather than
disappearance, they also discover that someone had assumed the identity
of the caller, and she is now dead. They've been set up, and it becomes
clear that someone is tracking their every move. Patricia Cornwell's
first novel, POSTMORTEM, was published in 1990 and won five
international awards. Her Scarpetta novels have since become Number One
bestsellers throughout the world. She has also published three police
procedurals, HORNET'S NEST, SOUTHERN CROSS and ISLE OF DOGS.
