Monday, October 15, 2012

The Bone Bed-Patricia Cornwell

The Bone Bed


Patricia Cornwell

Putnam, Oct 16 2012, $28.95

ISBN: 9780399157561



In the Wapiti Bone Bed in the Peace Region of Alberta, paleontologist Emma Shubert vanishes. The only evidence of the fortyish woman disappearing is an email sent to Chief Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta at the Cambridge Forensic Center in which the victim’s ear is severed. Scarpetta assumes someone taunts her while the University of Alberta bone digger is probably dead.



She is also overworked as she testifies in the Channing Lott murder trial and identifies mummified remains found in Boston Harbor before the decay sets in; delaying her is safely removing endangered species leatherback turtle. Finally her niece Lucy Farinelli, her FBI forensic psychologist husband Benton Wesley and her top investigator, Pete Marino have their own issues.



This is an exciting Scarpetta forensic thriller (see Red Mist) with much of the opening chapters devoted to what is happening to the heroine and her inner circle. The storyline accelerates with the thrills stratospheric in the latter half as the cases tie together though improbable. Fans will appreciate this exhilarating tale as Scarpetta works a dangerous inquiry against a diabolical murderer while feeling she is on her own.



Harriet Klausner



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