Kinsey Millhone doesn't think the robbery of Parnell Perkins was the reason he was killed. She ends up getting more than she bargained for when she tries to solve the case.
Private investigator Kinsey Millhone puts herself in the gravest danger of her career when she is hired by the widow of Nota Lake detective Tom Newquist to discover what it was that had been bothering Tom in the last six weeks of his life before he died of a heart attack.
Kinsey Millhone's grit is tested as she unearths the gruesome truth about a long-buried betrayal and, in the process, comes face-to-face with the grisly fact of her own mortality.
Medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta is anticipating a quiet New Year's Eve when she is called to investigate the death of a reporter found in the murky waters of a Navy shipyard. Her findings about the cause of death sets the FBI onto the story the dead man was following, leading Scarpetta and everyone involved into the hands of a cult fanatic.
Dr. Kay Scarpetta, chief medical examiner of Virginia and consultant for the FBI, is in the midst of a late-night autopsy when the call comes: Temple Brooks Gault, the sadistic serial killer has struck again, and he is hunting for her.
Kinsey's on the case when the seemingly small task of helping a neighbor, Bucky, obtain burial fees for his deceased veteran grandfather turns into an all-out treasure hunt.