Identity Unknown: The new Kay Scarpetta thriller

(Hardback)

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THE THRILLING NEW KAY SCARPETTA MYSTERY FROM THE 120-MILLION-COPY BESTSELLER

Summoned to an unnerving, abandoned theme park to retrieve a body, Dr Kay Scarpetta is devastated to learn that the victim is a man she once loved. While teaching in Rome during the early days of her career, Scarpetta had an intense love affair with Sal Giordano that led to a lifelong friendship.

The murder scene is bizarre, with a crop circle of petals around the body, and Giordano's skin is strangely red. Scarpetta's niece Lucy believes he was dropped from an unidentified flying craft. Scarpetta knows an autopsy can reveal the dead's secrets, but she is shocked to find her friend seems to have deliberately left her a clue.

As the investigators are torn between suspicions of otherworldly forces, and of Giordano himself, Scarpetta detects an explanation closer to home that, in her mind, is far more evil . . .

Reviews

PRAISE FOR UNNATURAL DEATH * - *
A chilling, thrilling, macabre masterpiece. Unnatural Death is Patricia Cornwell at her mesmerising finest. The best just got better -- CHRIS WHITAKER
Sinister, surprising and utterly unputdownable. Cornwell at her brilliant best -- M. J. ARLIDGE
Classic Cornwell with an up-to-the-minute twenty-first-century plot - an intoxicating blend that proves Scarpetta is still queen of the autopsy and Cornwell is still queen of crime fiction. An utterly thrilling roller coaster ride -- ANDREA MARA
An especially good entry in the series * BOOKLIST *
PRAISE FOR PATRICIA CORNWELL * - *
One of the best crime writers writing today * GUARDIAN *
Astonishing . . . Thirty years on, there's still no other crime writer like her * SUNDAY TIMES *
The top gun in this field * DAILY TELEGRAPH *
America's most stimulating and chilling writer of crime fiction * THE TIMES *
Forget the pretenders. Cornwell reigns * MIRROR *
A pioneer of the genre of forensic psychological thriller * BBC *
The Agatha Christie of the DNA age * EXPRESS *
The queen of the forensic thriller * MAIL ON SUNDAY *
Cutting-edge * SUN *
When it comes to forensic sciences, nobody can touch Cornwell * NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW *
Slick, fast-paced and brilliant * HEAT *
PRAISE FOR PATRICIA CORNWELL -- -
Thirty years on, there's still no other crime writer like her * SUNDAY TIMES *
One of the best crime writers writing today * GUARDIAN *
Cornwell really is in a league of her own * HEAT *
One of the all-time greats of this genre * SUN *
Forget the pretenders. Cornwell reigns * MIRROR *
The top gun in this field * DAILY TELEGRAPH *
America's most stimulating and chilling writer of crime fiction * THE TIMES *
The Agatha Christie of the DNA age * EXPRESS *
The queen of the forensic thriller * MAIL ON SUNDAY *

Author Bio

In 1990, Patricia Cornwell sold her first novel, Postmortem, while working at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Richmond, Virginia. An auspicious debut, it went on to win the Edgar, Creasey, Anthony, and Macavity Awards, as well as the French Prix du Roman d'Aventures - the first book ever to claim all these distinctions in a single year. Growing into an international phenomenon, the Scarpetta series won Cornwell the Sherlock Award for best detective created by an American author, the Gold Dagger Award, the RBA Thriller Award, and the Medal of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters for her contributions to literary and artistic development.

Today, Cornwell's novels and iconic characters are known around the world. Beyond the Scarpetta series, Cornwell has written the definitive nonfiction account of Jack the Ripper's identity, cookbooks, a children's book, a biography of Ruth Graham, and three other fictional series based on the characters Win Garano, Andy Brazil, and Captain Callie Chase. Cornwell continues exploring the latest space-age technologies and threats relevant to contemporary life. Her interests range from the morgue to artificial intelligence and include visits to Interpol, the Pentagon, the U.S. Secret Service and NASA.

Cornwell was born in Miami. She grew up in Montreat, North Carolina, and now lives and works in Boston.