This was quite well written but I found the plot confusing and not very interesting anyway. The main protagonist seemed to spend most of the time doing police work rather than forensics and got far too personally involved to be plausible, I think this is a problem with writing a mystery series with a forensic scientist as main protagonist. Keep to the forensics and you won’t have much story.

Also I found the romance element too melodramatic and that it didn’t add anything. Except more personal involvement for Scarpetta. In a way the novel does nothing for female equality as she can’t seem to just be a professional. She is too emotionally involved.