Unnatural Exposure: Scarpetta (Book 8) (Kay Scarpetta, #8)

by Patricia Cornwell

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A psychopath with an intimate knowledge of death has a personal vendetta against Kay Scarpetta—and many different plans to kill her. . . .
 
“Cornwell remains the master of incorporating real-life science into pulse-pounding fiction.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer
 
IN DEVELOPMENT AS THE ORIGINAL SERIES SCARPETTA STARRING NICOLE KIDMAN AND JAMIE LEE CURTIS
 
Dr. Kay Scarpetta is newly retired from Dublin, where she was called in to examine the remains of a murder victim whose limbs and head were expertly severed—a signature of a cunning killer on the loose again after an eight-year sabbatical—when the same killer apparently strikes again, this time much closer to home. After Scarpetta investigates the murder scene, the killer boldly contacts her through the Internet, inviting her to download photos of the murder victim and signing off with a chilling screen name: deadoc
 
With the help of her niece, Lucy, an FBI computer expert, she takes an extraordinary virtual tour of the background of the emailed photos. When Scarpetta determines that the victim was exposed to a rare smallpox-like virus before she died and, later, that she herself may have been infected, she realizes that she is up against a killer with access to an incredibly sophisticated arsenal of deadly force—a killer with specific animus directed toward her.

• ISBN10: 0425218929
• ISBN13: 9780425218921
• Publish Date: 2 January 2008 (first published 1 January 1997)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Imprint: Penguin USA
• Format: Paperback (US Tall Rack)
• Pages: 352
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780425218921

Reviews

[ibeforem]

I’m just not sure what to think about this series. I like forensics angle, and the mystery, but these later books are just so bogged down in the sturm und drang of Kay’s life. Oh, the malaise! Kay Scarpetta has the angst of your average 15 year old girl, and it’s starting to get in the way. The story here is interesting and does make you wonder about what would have to happen if a disease such as smallpox were to be used as a weapon, and the final confrontation was good, but I found the "who" in the "whodunnit" rather unsatisfying. Part of what makes a mystery satisfying is the discovery of whether or not you are right in your suspicions, but in this book there really was no way to figure it out ahead of time. Yet, I keep reading them.