It’s Dr. Kay Scarpetta’s birthday, and she’s about to head to Miami for a vacation with Benton Wesley, her FBI profiler husband, when she notices seven pennies on a wall behind their Cambridge house. Is this a kids’ game? If so, why are all of the coins dated 1981 and so shiny they could be newly minted? Her cellphone rings, and Detective Pete Marino tells her there’s been a homicide five minutes … minutes away. A high school music teacher has been shot with uncanny precision as he unloaded groceries from his car. No one has heard or seen a thing.
In this 22nd Scarpetta novel, the master forensic sleuth finds herself in the unsettling pursuit of a serial sniper who leaves no incriminating evidence except fragments of copper. The shots seem impossible, yet they are so perfect they cause instant death. The victims appear to have had nothing in common, and there is no pattern to indicate where the killer will strike next. First New Jersey, then Massachusetts, and then the murky depths off the coast of South Florida, where Scarpetta investigates a shipwreck, looking for answers that only she can discover and analyze. And it is there that she comes face to face with shocking evidence that implicates her techno genius niece, Lucy, Scarpetta’s own flesh and blood.
Includes an exclusive excerpt from the riveting next novel in the Kay Scarpetta series, DEPRAVED HEART.
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Are you kidding me as my daughter would say to one of her three boys. This author knows how to completely fill every sentence with as much information, intrigue and meaning a sentence could possibly take.
I had to know how it ended! Hard to putdown!
Love Patricia Cornwell. A bit different then others I’ve read but a twisted and well written book
Cornwell still tells a good story but I think I’m just tired of Kay Scarpetta.
One of the better Scarlett’s books I’ve read in a while & I’ve read most of them.
I love Patricia Cornwall but this book was a disaster!
Patricia Cornwell hits the mark again, which is no surprise. Her series featuring Kay Scarpetta, the Chief Medical Examiner for Massachusetts, never fails to drag the reader into the stories. This one had a little less action, but the suspense was there nevertheless. Trying to determine who the killer is requires some outside-the-box thinking. I’ve read hers all in order, until this one. It seems I skipped a couple but that really doesn’t matter with Scarpetta’s life. And I’m going back to read the two that came right before this one–just to fill in the gaps for my own mind’s sake. If you’ve never read a Scarpetta novel, I don’t know what to say other than, why on earth not??!!
Very slow moving plot. Not my favorite PC book.
True Patricia Cornwell style. Enjoy the series. Ready for the next book as soon as I finished this one.
Typical Scarpetta mystery. Cornwall is always at the top of her game.
I have been reading the Scarpetta series from the begining and I generally like them. However, these books are delving more and more into the technical side of all the new skills that Kate Scarpetta acquires. The writing has become dry.
It’s getting old
Patricia Cornwell is an excellent author. I’ve read most of her books.
Boring! The only good part was the end. “SNAP”
Love the Kay Scarpetta character.
I like the Kay Scarpetta series. This one is a typical book in the series. Entertaining.
A Scarpetta mystery woven with strong familiar characters loved by Caldwell Fans back working hard to ‘Serve and Protect’. Interesting areas of expertise explored to solve a case. In the end, the reader is left wanting more!
Another good read from Pat Cornwell
Wild ride!
Another Dr Scarlett’s thriller with Marino in yet another new issue. LucyLoo is still being Lucy.