Trace (Scarpetta)

Cornwell, Patricia Daniels

ISBN 10: 0399568824 ISBN 13: 9780399568824

Publisher: Penguin Group USA, 2016

Synopsis

The heart-stopping new Dr. Kay Scarpetta thriller from America's #1-bestselling crime writer.

Dr. Kay Scarpetta, now freelancing from south Florida, returns to the city that turned its back on her five years ago.

In Trace, Scarpetta travels to Richmond, Virginia, at the odd behest of the recently appointed Chief Medical Examiner, who claims that he needs her help to solve a perplexing crime. When she arrives, however, Scarpetta finds that nothing is as she expected: her former lab is in the final stages of demolition; the inept chief isn't the one who requested her after all; her old assistant chief has developed personal problems that he won't reveal; and a glamorous FBI agent, whom Marino dislikes instantly, meddles with the case.

Deprived of assistance from colleagues Benton and Lucy, who are embroiled in what first appears to be an unrelated attempted rape by a stalker, Scarpetta is faced with investigating the death of a fourteen-year-old girl, working with the smallest pieces of evidence-traces that only the most thorough hunters can identify. She must follow the twisting leads and track the strange details in order to make the dead speak-and to reveal the sad truth that may be more than even she can bear.

About this title

Review:

Break out the champagne: Patricia Cornwell has thankfully moved on from her controversial campaign to lay the Jack the Ripper murders at the door of the painter Walter Sickert, and in Trace is again raising our pulse rate by taking us into the dangerous world of consultant pathologist Dr Kay Scarpetta.

In this latest outing, Kay finds herself back in Virginia examining a curious death, that of the youthful Gilly Paulson. Joel Marcus, her successor as Chief Medical Examiner, has summoned a reluctant Scarpetta to help out, but her professional work is compromised by her unhappiness at the radical changes occurring in her old territory: Scarpetta's old morgue has been bulldozed, and she isn’t happy working with the man who took her job. Other members of the familiar Scarpetta crew make an appearance: her partner Benton Wesley and her niece Lucy Farinelli are tracking down an assailant who has nearly ended the life of one of Lucy’s colleagues. The two cases turn out to be connected (surprise!), and soon several lives are at stake.

After the recent misfires, it’s a relief to note that Patricia Cornwell is back on track, dealing comfortably with her most familiar protagonist and a plot that yokes in bomb-makers and some bizarre sexual practices. A resounding welcome back, to both Ms Cornwell and Ms Scarpetta.--Barry Forshaw

Review:

'Scarpetta ... is back with a vengeance.' (The New York Times Book Review)

'Cornwell gets her Hitchcock on ... [She] can generate willies with subtle poetic turns.' (PEOPLE)

'Fun [and] flamboyant.' (Entertainment Weekly)

'Trace is rich and satisfying, with Cornwell sprinkling a trail of tantalising bread crumbs for the Scarpetta faithful, who are always hungry for the next installment.' (Associated Press)

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Group USA
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0399568824
• ISBN 13: 9780399568824
• Binding: Audio CD