Dust

Product Description After working one of the worst mass killings in U.S. history, Scarpetta returns home to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Exhausted and ill, she's recovering at home when she receives an unsettling call. The body of a young woman has been discovered on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's rugby field. The victim, a graduate student named Gail Shipman, is oddly draped in ivory linen and posed in a way that is too deliberate to be the killer's first strike. A preliminary examination in the sea of red mud where the body has been left also reveals a bizarre residue that fluoresces blood red, emerald green and sapphire blue. Physical evidence links the case to a series of uniquely weird homicides in Washington, D.C., where Scarpetta's FBI husband has been deployed to help capture a serial killer dubbed the Capital Murderer. The cases all connect and yet seem to conflict. Gail Shipman was murdered for financial gain-- or was she? It will require the usual ensemble of characters to find out the truth, including Scarpetta's sidekick Pete Marino, who has undergone a drastic change in his life that places him center stage in a Cambridge investigation that puts everyone at risk. About the Author Patricia Cornwell is the author of numerous #1 New York Times bestselling novels, as well as works of nonfiction. She sold her first novel, Postmortem, while working as a computer analyst at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Richmond, Virginia. It is the only novel to win five major crime awards in a single year. She has since gone on to become a #1 New York Times bestselling author, and her novels have won numerous awards, including the Edgar, the Creasey, the Anthony, and the Macavity awards, as well as Frances Prix du Roman dAventure. Her novel Book of the Dead won the 2008 Galaxy British Book Awards Books Direct Crime Thriller of the year, and she was the first American to win this award. Her character, Dr. Kay Scarpetta, won the 1999 Sherlock Award for the best detective created by an American author. She was awrded the Medal of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters for her contributions to literary and artistic development. Her books have sold more than 100 million copies in thirty-six languages in over 120 countries. When not writing, she tirelessly researches cutting-edge forensic technologies to include in her work.