A reclusive author, Beryl Madison finds no safe haven from months of menacing phone calls - or the tormented feeling that her every move is being watched. When the writer is found slain in her own home, Kay Scarpetta pieces together the intricate forensic evidence - while unwittingly edging closer to a killer waiting in the shadows.

In Richmond, Virginia, young lovers are dying. So far, four couples in the area have disappeared, only to be found months later as mutilated corpses. When the daughter of the president's newest drug czar vanishes along with her boyfriend, Dr Kay Scarpetta knows time is short. Following a macabre trail of evidence that ties the present homicides to a grisly crime in the past, Kay must draw upon her own personal resources to track down a murderer who...

A serial killer is on the loose in Richmond, Virginia. Three women have died, brutalised and strangled in their own bedrooms. But there is no pattern. Dr Kay Scarpetta, chief medical officer, now fears for those who will follow.

Chief medical examiner Kay Scarpetta is the reluctant star witness in a sensational murder trial when she receives shocking news. The judge?s sister has been found dead. At first glance, it appears to be a home invasion, but then why was nothing stolen, and why is the garden strewn with dead plants and insects? Although there is no apparent cause of death, Scarpetta recognises telltale signs of the unthinkable, and she knows the worst is yet to come....

First, a leading dinosaur hunter goes missing from a dig in Canada: next, Kay Scarpetta receives a grisly communication which leads her to believe that the disappearance may be her next case. Kate must now rely solely on her own instincts to catch a cunning enemy who seems impossible to defeat.