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Content snapshot
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Violence
A lot
Autopsies and crime scene examination described forensically; an execution is depicted
Language
Some
Some strong language
Sexual Content
Barely any
No significant sexual content
Substance Use
Barely any
Moderate drinking
Emotional Intensity
A lot
The specific vulnerability of someone whose job is to tell the truth to power about how people died; institutional resistance to uncomfortable forensic findings
What this book is about
A man is executed at Virginia's death row. Days later, his fingerprints appear at the scene of a fresh murder. Kay Scarpetta investigates an impossible case — a killer who should be dead committing new crimes — against resistance from a police department that considers the execution closed and a prosecutor who considers the case an embarrassment. Patricia Cornwell's fourth Scarpetta novel introduces a darker institutional element: the cover-up of something that went wrong inside the prison system, and the specific danger of a medical examiner who is asking questions that powerful people don't want asked.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
graphic forensic descriptions
fourth of the Scarpetta series
Reader Verification
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