If you are new reader to Patricia Cornwell, Dr. Kay Scarpetta is the Chief Medical Examiner for the Commonwealth of Virginia. She is also an attorney and although her job description does not cover investigative work solving homicides, this series of books cast her in that role.

Kay's niece, Lucy Farinelli, is the one family member Kay can unreservedly love. Longtime Cornwell readers have watched Lucy mature from a college student to an FBI agent. In an early book, Lucy's lover, Carrie Grethen, was revealed to be a psychopathic killer. Through Kay's efforts, Carrie was apprehended and is now in a high security hospital for the criminally insane.

Kay's lover, Benton Wesley, a retired FBI criminal profiler, is now divorced and they are settled into a comfortable relationship. That serenity is shattered when Kay receives a note from Carrie which serves as a warning that in the soon to be held trial (since Carrie is apparently no longer insane) she will reveal all…her affair with Lucy and Kay's affair with Benton.

Before anyone can react to this, Kay is summoned to a horrific fire scene in northern Virginia. The accelerant is unknown, and the initial investigation shows a fire that burned too quickly with too much heat. Nineteen horses died and while sifting through the debris in the house, Kay discovers the remains of what might be a female victim.

In the midst of this, Carrie escapes and Kay, Lucy and Benton are prime targets for revenge. Soon, they unearth similar fires that have occurred and must respond to the scene of yet another one.

What do all these fires have in common with the evil Carrie? How is the tension that seems to have materialized between Kay and Lucy handled? If you are the least bit queasy, I recommend you try an earlier Cornwell book. The graphic violence in this book goes off the Richter scale. Is it gratuitously morbid? Perhaps not for those who have a consuming interest in the inner workings of a medical examiner's autopsy room.

--Thea Davis