Body Farm (Kay Scarpetta)

"Little Emily Steiner left a church meeting late one afternoon and strolled toward home along a lakeside path; a week later, her nude body was discovered, bound in blaze-orange duct tape. Called by the North Carolina authorities, forensic pathologist Kay Scarpetta recognizes similarities to the gruesome work of a serial killer who has long eluded the FBI But as she tries to make sense of the evidence, she is left with questions that lead her to the Body Farm, a little known research facility in Tennessee where, with the help of some grisly experiments, she might discover the answer. It is Scarpetta alone who can interpret the forensic hieroglyphics that eventually reveal a solution to the case as staggering as it is horrifying. But she must also endeavor to help her niece, Lucy, who is embroiled in controversy at Quantico. And Scarpetta, too, is vulnerable, as she opens herself to the first physical and emotional bond she has felt in far too long a time. Tenacious and brilliant, tender and gentle, this is Scarpetta even more realized and poignant than we've seen her before--in a stunning achievement from a best-selling author at the peak of her powers.

Patricia Cornwell Patricia Cornwell won Britain's prestigious Gold Dagger for another Scarpetta novel, Cruel and Unusual, which, like All That Remains and Body of Evidence, was a national and international bestseller, establishing the author as one of the top names in the crime writing field. Her first novel, Postmortem, was the only novel ever to win the Edgar, Creasey, Anthony, and Macavity awards and the French Prix du Roman d'Adventure in one year. A former award-winning crime reporter for the Charlotte Observer, Cornwell worked for more than six years as a computer analyst in the chief medical examiner's office in Virginia.