Christmas had never been a particularly good time for Dr Kay Scarpetta. Although a holiday for most it always seem to heighten the alienation felt by society's violent fringe; & that usually means more work for Scarpetta Virginia's Chief Medical Examiner I. The body was naked female & found propped against a fountain in a bleak area of New York's Central Park. Her apparent manner of death points to a modus operandi that is chillingly familiar: the gunshot wound to the head the sections of skin excised from the body the displayed corpse
- all suggest that Temple Brooks Gault Scarpetta's nemesis is back at work. Calling on all her reserves of courage & skill & the able assistance of colleagues Marino & Wesley Scarpetta must track this most dangerous of killers in pursuit of survival as well as justice
- heading inexorably to an electrifying climax amid the dark menacing labyrinths of the New York subway. For more about Patricia Cornwell & her books visit her website at www.patricia-cornwell.com