Kay Scarpetta is a celebrated forensic pathologist who has taken an assignment in NYC. Her resume includes solving unusually difficult cases by painstaking attention to detail and determined exploration of every possibility. This time her patient, Oscar Bane, isn’t dead. And, he has demanded her world-renowned expertise and integrity be used to exonerate him. The case gets more bizarre with each fingernail clipped, each bruise examined. Oscar Bane has been injured during the course of the murder of his girlfriend, which he swears he did not commit.

Patricia Cornwell reinvented the forensic thriller genre over twenty years ago and during the intervening time has earned the Edgar, Creasey, Gold Dagger, Anthony, McCavity, Sherlock and Galaxy British Crime Thriller of the Year Awards. In each book, the reader is privy to the grisly reality of autopsies, the intimate invasion of the body in order to uncover how the victim died, as well as clues to the identity of the killer. Those twenty years have generated many technological advances in forensic science and as each is unveiled in real-life, Cornwell incorporates them into Scarpetta’s well-equipped labs.

The anchoring story in “Scarpetta” addresses the invasive power of the internet. Lucy, a computer phenom who is fiercely protective of her aunt, zeroes in on people who have been slandering Scarpetta online with sleazy photos and ridiculous articles. Cornwell’s message is that we are all vulnerable to the baseless smear campaigns that exist on some sites only to snag more readers and keep them hooked.

“Scarpetta” (#16 in the strand) is sometimes darkly disturbing, because the dialogue is so matter of fact, so real. It often seemed as if I was eavesdropping, listening in on private, painful conversations between Scarpetta, her niece, Lucy, her forensic psychologist husband, Benton Wesley, and the investigator and former friend, Pete Marino. No matter the existing murderous storyline, their complex interactions have evolved in true-life fashion during the twenty books in the Scarpetta series.

There are well-developed, sometimes creepy, supporting characters, mature subjects, surprising plot twists and turns, and plenty to satisfy Cornwell fans.

For more information about Patricia Cornwell, her books and other series, visit www.patriciacornwell.com  The site is interactive, with something to find on every page.