Flesh and Blood Synopsis
No.1 bestselling author Patricia Cornwell delivers the next enthralling thriller in her high-stakes series starring Kay Scarpetta-a complex tale involving a serial sniper who strikes chillingly close to the forensic sleuth herself. It's Chief Medical Examiner Dr Kay Scarpetta's birthday, and while she's enjoying a leisurely morning, a man is shot dead five minutes from her house.
The bullet tore through him as he unloaded groceries from his car. Yet nobody heard or saw a thing. It looks like the work of a serial sniper - one who leaves no trace except for tiny copper fragments, and whose seemingly impossible shots cause instant death.
As Scarpetta investigates, uncovering details that only she can analyze, she begins to suspect that the killer is sending her a message. Adding to Scarpetta's growing unease is the sense that those closest to her are keeping secrets. And when her pursuit of the sniper takes Scarpetta to a shipwreck off the Florida coast, she comes face to face with shocking evidence that implicates her niece Lucy - Scarpetta's very own flesh and blood...
About This Edition
Patricia Cornwell Press Reviews
PRAISE FOR PATRICIA CORNWELL & THE KAY SCARPETTA NOVELS:
'Cornwell's books run on high octane fuel, a cocktail of adrenalin and fear.'
-The Times
'Forget the pretenders. Cornwell reigns'
-Mirror
'When it comes to the forensic sciences, nobody can touch Cornwell'
-New York Times Book Review
'Cornwell has created a character so real, so compelling, so driven that this reader has to remind herself regularly that Scarpetta is just a product of an author's imagination'
-USA Today
'Dazzling... After reading Cornwell's thriller, most others will pale in comparison'
-Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
'Magnificent plotting, masterful writing, and marvelous suspense'
-Booklist
'Cornwell's instincts are dead-on.'
-Chicago Sun-Times
'Cornwell remains a master of the genre, instilling in readers an appetite that only she can satisfy
-Publishers Weekly
'In Kay Scarpetta, Patricia Cornwell has a character as strong as any in popular fiction'
-Wall St. Journal
'Cornwell fabricates intricate plot twists and paces the action at an ankle-turning clip'
-New York Times Book Review
'Cornwell has the milieu down cold'
-Los Angeles Daily News
'Cornwell gets her Hitchcock on ... [She] can generate willies with subtle poetic turns'
-People
'Plots within plots, fraught atmosphere, and unrelenting suspense keep readers on tenterhooks while one trap after another springs under unwary feet'
-Los Angeles Times
'Fascinating... Vivid... Scarpetta is here to stay!'
-Los Angeles Times Book Review
'To Cornwell's considerable credit, the unease arises ultimately not from the steady potential for violence, but from a more profound horror: the vulnerability of a good woman like Kay to a world beset by the corrupt, the cruel, the demonic'
-Publishers Weekly
'Cornwell is the class act'
-Vogue
'Scarpetta is a tenacious, principled investigator who's the one voice of reason in a story fraught with bizarre unreason'
-Booklist
About Patricia Cornwell
In 1990, Patricia Cornwell sold her first novel, Postmortem, while working at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Richmond, Virginia. An auspicious debut, it went on to win the Edgar, Creasey, Anthony, and Macavity Awards, as well as the French Prix du Roman d'Aventures - the first book ever to claim all these distinctions in a single year. Growing into an international phenomenon, the Scarpetta series won Cornwell the Sherlock Award for best detective created by an American author, the Gold Dagger Award, the RBA Thriller Award, and the Medal of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters for her contributions to literary and artistic development.
Today, Cornwell's novels and iconic characters are known around the world. Beyond the Scarpetta series, Cornwell has written the definitive nonfiction account of Jack the Ripper's identity, cookbooks, a children's book, a biography of Ruth Graham, and three other fictional series based on the characters Win Garano, Andy Brazil, and Captain Callie Chase. Cornwell continues exploring the latest space-age technologies and threats relevant to contemporary life. Her interests range from the morgue to artificial intelligence and include visits to Interpol, the Pentagon, the U.S. Secret Service and NASA.
Cornwell was born in Miami. She grew up in Montreat, North Carolina, and now lives and works in Boston.
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