Scarpetta is back in the driver’s seat, something the series regular reader will find exciting. Working with the US Military to examine the death of fallen soldiers, Scarpetta flashes back to a fellowship she undertook at the beginning of her career in South Africa. Back in the present, the mysterious death of a man in Scarpetta’s neighbourhood could have disastrous results when it’s found that the man was still bleeding after being locked in the morgue’s refrigeration unit overnight. Could this mean the end of Scarpetta’s career, as well as those close around her? Additionally, when a letter arrives from a troubled mother, begging Scarpetta to reopen the case that will send her son away for life, our famed pathologist discovers some eerie truths about a certain member of her staff; truths that could begin an ever more chaotic set of events. How do all these cases tie together and will Scarpetta be able to shake her past mistakes before those in her present permanently ruin her?

Cornwell has answered the pleas of Scarpetta fans with an explosive novel that could only have been told from the first person perspective. With a great deal of technology (so much so that Cornwell must preface the book with ‘this could happen’) and a whole list of alphabet soup acronyms, the reader is in for a fast-paced ride that will not end as the mysteries and curiosities pile up one on top of another. Perhaps one of her best works yet, Cornwell returns to the pace she set in the early novels, with blunt dialogue and cases that take the reader’s breath away.

Kudos Madam Cornwell on a fabulous novel. You never cease to amaze me!