The new era of Scarpetta begins… In this #1 New York Times bestselling novel, Patricia Cornwell takes her readers deeper into Kay Scarpetta's heart and soul than ever before…. Thwarting an attack by a suspected serial killer puts Virginia's Chief Medial Examiner Kay Scarpetta in the harsh glare of the spotlight. As her personal and professional lives come under suspicion, she discovers that the so-called Werewolf murders may have extended to New York City and into the darkest corners of her past. A formidable prosecutor, a female assistant district attorney from New York, is brought into the case-and Scarpetta must struggle to make what she knows to be the truth prevail against mounting and unnerving evidence to the contrary. Tested in every way, she turns inward to ask, Where do you go when there is nowhere left?

Patricia Cornwell's international bestsellers include Postmortem-the only novel to win the Edgar, Creasey, Anthony, and Macavity awards and the French Prix du Roman d'Aventure in a single year-and Cruel and Unusual, which won Britain's prestigious Gold Dagger Award for the year's best crime novel in 1993. Her fictional chief medical examiner, Dr. Kay Scarpetta, won the 1999 Sherlock Award for best detective created by an American author. Cornwell divides her time between New York City and Richmond, Virginia, where she has helped establish the Virginia Institute of Forensic Science and Medicine, the first forensic training facility of its kind in the nation. Cornwell serves as the Institute's Chairman of the Board. You may visit the Institute's website at www.vifsm.org and Cornwell's own website at www.patriciacornwell.com.