A compelling and captivating thriller in Patricia Cornwall's fourth novel. Personally, I've been addicted since reading the first one "Postmortem" and they are impossible to put down. While going through a devastating loss of a friend and at one time, a love interest, Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. Kay Scarpetta is finding with some difficulty of keeping her mind on her work. But right now, thinking of Mark James, isn't going to get her through with the next autopsy of Ronnie Joe Waddell who not too long ago was executed by the state of Virginia. From the start, this was going to turn out to be a huge mystery in Kay's eyes. First, why was he bleeding? Second, why did he have abrasions under his arms? Third, no stomach contents, why? No last meal? Even Kay's friend and homicide Det. Pete Marino agrees with her that some things do not add up even though he knows that Waddell was guilty as hell for the murder of the former Miss Virginia ten years earlier. Now, at another crime scene, Waddell's fingerprints show up. How can that be? He was just electrocuted! On top of everything else, Kay learns that one of her assistants never took Waddell's prints when he was brought into the morgue. Why? Slowly she learns that her offices are corrupt, her computers have been hacked and once again, her enemies are waiting for her to fall flat on her face. Suddenly if things couldn't get anymore worse, her assistant Susan has been murdered. Why? Again, working by the side of her dear friend and colleague, FBI Profiler Benton Wesley, they will begin a quest by asking one huge question "who did they execute and who is responsible for the murders that are happening now"? And why is this murderer trying to implicate Kay? Are these three cases in any way related? Who paid Susan off not to print Waddell in the morgue? Before Kay can see any light to the end of the tunnel, she will also have to face a current of obstacles too. With the help of Lucy, Benton, and Marino, all details come to light but nothing will prepare any of them when they actually learn about the one responsible. Even Benton, especially him, coming across one of the most cunning, devious, intelligent, evil killer of all time. Just when they thought it couldn't get worse........I thought this novel of Miss Cornwall's was excellent...I am a true fan!... ( )

Another good read. Complex plot about a man on death row, the woman he murdered 10 years earlier and the efforts of people in power to hide their story. Bit gruesome in places but PC obvious researches things very thoroughly. ( )

Not a bad story, the plot was pretty good, the characters ok. But something was missing, as with the entire series I’ve read so far...it’s hard to describe, but it’s just that feeling of wanting to read more. Nothing in this series makes me want to continue it, but I do just due to the fact that I have a few of them...when they are done, back to the used bookstore they will go and I won’t look back ( )

Terrific characters, fast pace, and snappy dialogue make this a page-turner. Now I am eager to read the rest of the series! ( )

Patricia Cornwell’s early novels featuring Dr Klay Scarpetta, Chief Medical Examiner for the State of Virginia, were great commercial and critical successes. They combined detailed insight into forensic procedures with well-constructed plots and highly plausible characters. This was the first on them that I read, shortly after it was published in the early 1990s, and I was sufficiently impressed to go back and read the preceding volumes in the series, and then to await its successors.

With the benefit of hindsight, I view this as perhaps the last of the good books in the series – hereafter, I think that the quirks of some of the characters began to predominate, to the detriment of the books as a whole.

Reading it again nearly thirty years later, this still seems a good plausible novel – even the advances in the various avenues of technology that feature don’t detract from the impact of the novel. ( )