Cruel & Unusual (Kay Scarpetta, #4)

by Patricia Cornwell

Ronnie Joe Waddell (Prologue)

“Killing me won’t kill the beast” warned convicted rapist-murderer Ronnie Joe

Waddell four days before his execution. Ignored as a madman’s rant, the words

come to haunt Scarpetta when Waddell’s fingerprints show up at a fresh crime—

committed after she’d performed his autopsy. It’s a chilling game, and Scarpetta

can’t afford to lose. Because if Waddell’s next victim is someone she loves, the

punishment will be CRUEL AND UNUSUAL.

When Dr. Kay Scarpetta and Police Lieutenant Pete Marino find the brutally wounded body of a 13-year-old boy carefully propped against a dumpster, and the only fingerprint that of an already executed criminal, their investigation takes a "cruel and unusual" turn.

• ISBN10: 0380718340
• ISBN13: 9780380718344
• Publish Date: 5 March 1995 (first published 1 June 1993)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Avon Books
• Format: Paperback (US Mass Market)
• Pages: 416
• Language: English

Reviews

[ibeforem]

Not a bad installment. I don’t enjoy these early ones as much as the later ones. The wrap-ups often seem clunky and convenient. Lucy’s character in this one is somewhat harsh, but there’s shadows of what’s to come with her.