After two lackluster installments, Cornwell returns in high form with this 13th entry in her wildly successful Kay Scarpetta series. I’m happy to report that after a book where her main protagonist wallowed in self-pity (The Last Precinct) and another entry where she appeared only briefly (Blow Fly), Scarpetta is back and doing what she does best – forensics, autopsies and crime solving.

A former medical examiner, Kay has been consulting out of her Florida home, having been unceremoniously fired by the state of Virginia five years earlier. However, against her better judgment, when her successor calls asking for help on a difficult case she agrees. When she arrives in Richmond, with comrade Pete Marino in tow, she quickly realizes that she should have refused the job. Her successor is incompetent, her former office building is being torn down, her former assistant chief looks like hell, and there are some political maneuverings lurking in the background that she’s stepping right into.

Trying best to work past all of that, Kay begins working on the case that she was called to consult on. A 14-year-old girl is found dead in her bed at home. Her mother thinks the child died from the flu, but Kay soon discovers that it’s murder. The only problem is that there is trace evidence found on the girl’s body that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

Meanwhile, Kay’s niece Lucy is in hot water. Her current lover is attacked while staying in Lucy’s home. As owner of a top-secret security firm, Lucy opts to look into this stalking case herself and begs Kay’s lover, Benton Wesley, for help. Benton soon fears that Lucy’s lover wasn’t the target of the stalker, rather Lucy was.

After spending the last two entries of this series on back-story and individual characters it was extremely refreshing to discover the author returning to her roots. The title refers directly to the mysterious trace evidence that Kay discovers on the murdered girl’s body, and on another body seemingly unrelated to the case. In fact, there are three separate mysteries going on at once, which makes the story extremely readable and hard to put down.

Cornwell shifted towards a different writing style a couple of books back, and she’s still employing that form – short chapters and head hopping. Point of view changes from chapter to chapter and to various locations depending on where the character is at that time.

As far as the characters themselves, fans of the series will discover little has changed. While Pete Marino is now on the South Beach Diet, he’s still got a chip on his shoulder and unresolved feelings for Kay. Lucy is still making disastrous decisions when it comes to her love life, and it is seriously affecting her working relationships. And there are still the unresolved issues between Benton and Kay – none of which are really dealt with over the course of the story.

While this series stopped standing alone ages ago, Trace does stand alone better than some of the last few installments. Newcomers should be able to get through it without being terribly confused or lost, but will likely be left hanging regarding back story. Still, it has much to recommend it, unlike the previous two entries that had little to do with forensics and much to do with character relationships.

After being keenly disappointed in the last couple of entries, this reviewer was pleasantly surprised (and relieved!) to discover that Cornwell had gone back to basics. Readers get to once again see Kay back in action, which is frankly where she belongs. It was nice to see her once again at work at the autopsy table, and even nicer that she got to sink her teeth into a good mystery.

--Wendy Crutcher