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...

Forensic pathologist Kay Scarpetta has come almost full circle, returning to Virginia as the chief medical examiner, the state where she launched her storied career. Finding herself the new girl in town once again after being away for many years, she's inherited not only an overbearing secretary, but also a legacy of neglect and potential corruption. She and her husband Benton Wesley, now a forensic psychologist with the U.S. Secret Service, have...