A serial killer is loose in Richmond, specializing in attractive young couples whose bodies are inevitably found in the woods months later-- minus their socks and shoes. After months of exposure to the elements, all that remains of this killer's victims has, in every case, left Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta unable even to determine an exact cause of death. Frustrated that her high-tech forensic skills have apparently proved useless, Kay...

11:05 p.m. Convicted murderer Ronnie Joe Waddell is pronounced dead in the Commonwealth of Virginia's electric chair. His death is not the only newsworthy event on this cold December night. Three hours after young Eddie Heath goes out to buy a can of soup, his nude, grotesquely wounded body is found propped against a dumpster. The two events seem unrelated until chief medical examiner Kay Scarpetta remembers that Waddell arranged his victim in a strikingly...

Virginia's chief medical examiner Kay Scarpetta matches wits with a wily killer who uses fire to mask his crimes. The case begins with a fire in which many horses die and the embers yield a human body.

Physically and psychologically bruised by her encounter with the killer Chandonne, Dr Kay Scarpetta has to leave her home in the hands of the police team investigating the attack. She finds shelter with an old friend, Anna Zenner, but it is not the haven of security she needs when she discovers that Anna has been sub-poenaed to appear before a Grand Jury which is investigating Scarpetta for murder. Kay knows she is being framed and she also knows...

Medical examiner Kay Scarpetta invites her friends over to celebrate the day after Christmas, and each one brings their own favorite dish, including eggnog, cookies, and pizza stew.

Medical examiner Kay Scarpetta tries to find out who has been stalking pairs of young lovers in the woodlands of Virginia.