Synopsis
Dr. Kay Scarpetta receives a haunting note from a psychopathic killer she helped put away in Cornwell's previous novel, "Body Farm". Scarpetta must interrupt a vacation when the killer escapes and threatens to seek revenge.
| Details | | Publication Date: | 1998-07-01 | | Series: | Kay Scarpetta |
| Size | | Length: | 272 pages | | Height: | 10.0 in | | Width: | 6.5 in | | Thickness: | 1.5 in | | Weight: | 25.6 oz |
Publisher's Note
From the New York Times #1 bestselling author of Unnatural Exposure and Cause of Death comes a white-hot new Kay Scarpetta novel that pits Virginia's Chief Medical Examiner against an audacious and wily killer who uses fire to mask his crimes.
From the author of Unnatural Exposure and Cause of Death comes a new Kay Scarpetta novel that pits Virginia's chief medical examiner against an audacious and wily killer who uses fire to mask his crimes. And when Scarpetta learns that her old nemesis, Carrie Grethen, is somehow involved, the investigation gets personal and tragedy strikes closer to home.
Industry Reviews
Cornwell is so hot that in this new outing she pits Chief Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta against a murderer who uses fire to cover his tracks. A Literary GuildR, Doubleday Book Club, and Mystery Guild main selection.
Chafe
Cornwell fans who relish her Kay Scarpetta stories for the postmortem findings will welcome this tale of twisted minds and the gory havoc they cause. Acronym fans will also be pleased. This tale opens with the complete destruction by fire of a Virginia horse farm, the owner of which was said to be in London. As consultant to the FBI and the ATF's NRT (that's the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms' National Response Team), Scarpetta joins the investigation on site and discovers some remains of a young woman in the master bath. Although the origin of the fire remains a mystery, research turns up two similar unsolved incidents from years earlier, female victims who were dead before the accompanying conflagration. Another fire disguising another murder, and the escape of Carrie Grethen, evil woman partner of Scarpetta's now dead archenemy Temple Gault, from a New York City hospital for the criminally insane, ups Scarpetta's anxiety level about both her beloved, brilliant niece, Lucy, who was seduced by Grethen in The Body Farm, and her lover, psychological profiler Benton Wesley. A third fire covers a third personally devastating death before Scarpetta is able to finger Grethen's new diabolical partner and survive a harrowing finale in a helicopter. Although Cornwell repeatedly tells us how anxious, strung out or devastated Scarpetta feels in the face of Grethen's evil threats, there's very little dramatization of these powerfully emotional conditions. The author is convincing mainly in the delivery of chilling forensic details. One million first printing; $750,000 ad/promo; Literary Guild, Doubleday Book Club and Mystery Guild main selections; simultaneous Putnam Berkley audio. (July)
Lopate
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