The nineteenth book in the Kay Scarpetta series, and following straight on from the previous one, Port Mortuary (2010, USA). Scarpetta has been invited to the Georgia Prison for Women to speak to the woman who sexually abused Jack Fielding (Scarpetta’s deputy, who was murdered in Port Mortuary) when he was twelve, and whose daughter is the psycho genius responsible for his death (and several others). Scarpetta is then contacted by Jaime Berger, no longer DA responsible for sex crimes in New York, but now based in Savannah – and it turns out she manipulated Scarpetta into visiting Georgia. Because she thinks a young woman on death row who brutally murdered a respected doctor and his family ten years prior is innocent.

Scarpetta resents being manipulated, but then Berger is murdered… and the hunt is on for a poisoner, who may be linked to the prison and responsible for the deaths of several inmates who died of “natural causes” just hours before they were due to be executed. The whole gang is in Savannah – Marino, Lucy, Benton – and it seems the poisoner was actually responsible for the doctor’s murder ten years ago.

The plot is, to be honest, a bit weak. Once again, Scarpetta’s reputation is attacked (the murderer from the previous book is claiming Scarpetta tried to kill her). There’s another psycho genius hiding in the background, and whose identity is pretty easy to guess. Everyone seems particularly slow to spot things, including Scarpetta, and the killer is found more or less by accident. But there’s some good autopsy scenes and some good deductive science in identifying the poison.

Red Mist (2011, USA) seems to close off a two-book story arc, so I expect the next one, The Bone Bed (2012), will introduce yet another psycho genius who will murder a few people, then twist the facts of the case to make Scarpetta look like the villain, before being shot and killed while trying to murder Scarpetta… But we shall see.