An investigative reporter is found dead in Virginia's icy waters ...New Year's Eve and the final murder scene of Virginia's bloodiest year takes Scarpetta thirty feet below the Elizabeth River's icy surface.
A diver, Ted Eddings, is dead, an investigative reporter who was a favourite at the Medical Examiner's office. Was Eddings probing the frigid depths of the Inactive Shipyard for a story, or simply diving for sunken trinkets? And why did Scarpetta receive a phone call from someone reporting the death before the police were notified?
The case envelops Scarpetta, her niece Lucy, and police captain Pete Marino in a world where both cutting-edge technology and old-fashioned detective work are critical offensive weapons. Together they follow the trail of death to a well of violence as dark and forbidding as water that swirled over Ted Eddings.
'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
Author
About Patricia Cornwell
Patricia Cornwell is one of the world’s major international best-selling authors, translated into thirty-six languages across more than fifty countries. She is a founder of the Virginia Institute of Forensic Science and Medicine, a founding member of the National Forensic Academy, a member of the New York OCME Forensic Sciences Training Program’s Advisory Board, and a member of the Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital’s National Council, where she is an advocate for psychiatric research.
In 2008 Cornwell won the Galaxy British Book Awards’ Books Direct Crime Thriller of the Year – the first American ever to win this prestigious award. Her most recent bestsellers include Scarpetta, Book of the Dead and The Front. Her earlier works include Postmortem – the only novel to win five major crime awards in a single year – and Cruel and Unusual, which won the coveted Gold Dagger award in 1993. Dr. Kay Scarpetta herself won the 1999 Sherlock Award for the best detective created by an American writer.