The 'book of the dead' is the morgue log the ledger in which all cases are entered by h&. For Kay Scarpetta however it is about to have a new meaning. Fresh from her bruising battle with a psychopath in Florida Scarpetta decides it's time for a change of pace. Moving to the historic city of Charleston South Carolina she opens a unique private forensic pathology practice one in which she & her colleagues offer expert crime scene investigation & autopsies to communities lacking local access to competent death investigation & modern technology. It seems like an ideal situation until the murders & other violent deaths begin. A woman is ritualistically murdered in her multi-million-dollar beach home. The body of an abused young boy is found dumped in a desolate marsh. A sixteen-year-old tennis star is found nude & mutilated near Piazza Navona in Rome. Scarpetta has dealt with many brutal & unusual crimes before but never a string of them as baffling or as terrifying as the ones before her now. Before she is through that book of the dead will contain many names
- & the pen may be poised to write her own.