Identity Unknown - (Kay Scarpetta) by Patricia Cornwell

Book Synopsis

Nobel laureate and advisor to the White House Sal Giordano is found dead in the middle of an abandoned theme park. When Virginia's chief medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta is alerted about the case, she's warned that the victim is someone she knows. When she hears who it is, she's devastated.

While teaching in Rome for a summer during the early days of her career, she met Giordano. What began as an intense love affair evolved into a life long friendship, and now he's suddenly and bizarrely dead. Scarpetta's Secret Service investigator niece Lucy says that it appears he was dropped out of an unidentified flying craft, his skin red from some type of radiation.

When Scarpetta does the autopsy, she finds yet another inexplicable surprise. While it becomes increasingly suspicious that otherworldly forces could be responsible for Giordano's death, she detects the presence of a more likely earthbound explanation that in her mind is far more evil.

About the Author

In 1990, Patricia Cornwell sold her first novel, Postmortem, while working at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Richmond, Virginia. An auspicious debut, it went on to win the Edgar, Creasey, Anthony, and Macavity Awards, as well as the French Prix du Roman d'Aventures--the first book ever to claim all these distinctions in a single year. Growing into an international phenomenon, the Scarpetta series won Cornwell the Sherlock Award for best detective created by an American author, the Gold Dagger Award, the RBA Thriller Award, and the Medal of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters for her contributions to literary and artistic development. Today, Cornwell's novels and iconic characters are known around the world. Beyond the Scarpetta series, Cornwell has written the definitive nonfiction account of Jack the Ripper's identity, cookbooks, a children's book, a biography of Ruth Graham, and three other fictional series based on the characters Win Garano, Andy Brazil, and Captain Callie Chase. Cornwell continues exploring the latest space-age technologies and threats relevant to contemporary life. Her interests range from the morgue to artificial intelligence and include visits to Interpol, the Pentagon, the U.S. Secret Service and NASA. Cornwell was born in Miami. She grew up in Montreat, North Carolina, and now lives and works in Boston.