Dust
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4.1 • 203 Ratings
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- £4.99
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
The twenty-first book in the Kay Scarpetta series, from No. 1 bestselling author Patricia Cornwell.
'America's most chilling writer of crime fiction' The Times
After working on one of the worst mass killings in US history, Chief Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta returns home to recover, but an unsettling call drives her straight back to work.
The body of a young woman has been discovered inside the sheltered gates of MIT, draped in an unusual cloth and posed in a way that is too deliberate to be the killer's first strike. A preliminary examination reveals that the body is covered in a fine dust that under ultra-violet light fluoresces blood-red, emerald-green and sapphire-blue, and physical evidence links this to another series of disturbing homicides in Washington, DC.
As she pieces together the fragments of evidence, Scarpetta discovers that the cases connect, yet also seem to conflict, drawing herself and her team deeper into the dark world of designer drugs, drone technology, organised crime, and shocking corruption at the highest level.
Dust is a thrilling, addictive novel featuring one of the most iconic, original and compelling characters in crime fiction today. And don't miss Cornwell's new Scarpetta thriller, Unnatural Death.
Praise for the groundbreaking series:
'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
TRACE was a No.1 Sunday Times bestseller in paperback in April 2005
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
At the start of bestseller Cornwell's 21st novel starring Dr. Kay Scarpetta (after 2012's The Bond Bed), Scarpetta, now the director of the Cambridge Forensic Center and chief medical examiner of Massachusetts, receives a call from Det. Pete Marino, who like her has relocated from Virginia, about a body found on the MIT campus. Scarpetta is quick to recognize similarities between this killing and ones her husband, Benton Wesley, and his FBI colleagues at the Behavioral Analysis Unit in Washington, D.C., are investigating. The Cambridge victim, Gail Shipton, was suing a powerful international company, Double S, and her former financial manager, Dominic Lombardi. Aided by Benton, Scarpetta soon realizes that Benton's boss, Ed Granby, will do anything to thwart their investigation. One of Scarpetta's former bosses tells her that it's "not the job of a forensic pathologist to make deductions," but she does that as well as the best detectives. Cornwell's strength remains the intricate details of forensic examinations as her heroes fight to uncover both a serial killer and a high-level cover-up.
Customer Reviews
Dust
I've been an avid Scarpetta fan for many years and despite many bad reviews, I really enjoyed this book. No it's not the best one Cornwell has ever written but I couldn't put down. I guess it depends on what you want from a book. Can't wait to start flesh and blood now.
Crushingly predictable, a tired formula novel.
From an avid fan of Cornwell's early novels, this latest is just poor.
Dust requires a bit more polishing
A big fan of Cornwall for years, this is the first time a book has dragged.
Considering her line of work, we are over 100 pages in before she gets to the scene and 300 pages in before the body is back at the morgue. It is very dialogue heavy (often fast paced, and jagged dialogue which requires frustrating re-reads) and in my opinion would've benefitted from the characters doing more work/action and less thinking/ talking.