The second book in the Kay Scarpetta series, from No. 1 bestselling author Patricia Cornwell. ''America''s most chilling writer of crime fiction'' The TimesA reclusive writer is dead. And her final manuscript has disappeared . . .Someone is stalking Beryl Madison. Someone who spies on her and makes threatening, obscene phone-calls. Terrified, Beryl flees to Key West - but eventually she must return to her Richmond home. The very night she arrives, Beryl inexplicably invites her killer in . . .Thus begins for Dr Kay Scarpetta the investigation of a crime that is as convoluted as it is bizarre. Why would Beryl open the door to someone who brutally slashed and then nearly decapitated her? Did she know her killer? Adding to the intrigue is Beryl''s enigmatic relationship with a prize-winning author and the disappearance of her own manuscript. As Scarpetta retraces Beryl''s footsteps, an investigation that begins in the laboratory with microscopes and lasers leads her deep into a nightmare that soon becomes her own.The next book in the Scarpetta series is All That Remains. And the brand-new instalment, Identity Unknown, is available now!DISCOVER THE SERIES THAT SHAPED THE WORLD OF CRIME FICTION ''One of the best crime writers writing today'' Guardian ''Devilishly clever'' Sunday Times ''The top gun in this field'' Daily Telegraph ''Forget the pretenders. Cornwell reigns'' Mirror ''The Agatha Christie of the DNA age'' Express