Five years after being sacked as Chief Medical Examiner Dr Kay Scarpetta returns to Richmond, Virginia, and she is back with a vengeance. A vengeance not of her own making.
Her return, as consultant pathologist in the mysterious death of a teenage girl, ruffles a few feathers - her own included. Yet Gilly Paulsson's death has stumped the best in the business. There is no obvious cause: nothing suspicious except for the fact that Gilly shouldn't be dead. The case has also stumped Dr Joel Marcus, the new Chief Medical Examiner - who is not the best in the business. Scarpetta knows as much. Pete Marino, accompanying her, says as much. And soon there's evidence to prove it - trace evidence uncovered by Scarpetta. Gilly Paulsson was murdered. But why?
