Cornwell's Scarpette series continues to be a disappointment. After reading about 200 pages, I decided that none of it was even needed. Kay Scarpette plays hardly any role in catching the killer or figuring out the murder and yet again at the end she becomes a victim and someone saves her (which is starting to get a little old). Thankfully I didn't buy this one and only borrowed it because it would not have been worth the money. For a 500 page book, only the last 150 pages was probably needed and maybe another 50 pages from the beginning to explain what was going on. I also found it quite unbelievable that Cornwell suddenly had the audacity to bring it up so far into the series that Kay got through college paid for because she had been in the military?! There were also other things found in the beginning that were just much too difficult to believe. In addition Kay Scarpetta is Giving this book 2 stars might have been a little too nice of me.