About a year has passed since her nightmarish encounter with buddy Pete Marino, and Kay Scarpetta has relocated to Boston and NYC with her new husband, Benton Wesley. Just as some salacious gossip about Kay and Marino appears in the schlocky online column "Gotham Gotcha", Benton phones Kay with a request to see a murder suspect who will talk to no one but her. The suspect is a little person, the victim, his girlfriend, also a little person, and he vehemently denies having killed her. But the cops think otherwise.

An equally important co-plot centers upon the professional reunion of Kay, Benton, and Lucy with Marino, who has taken himself off in shame. Unbeknownst to Kay, Benton has been influential in helping Marino pull his life back together.

What follows is a story replete with enough tension, twists, and turns to hold the attention of any mystery reader. None of the principals has lost his/her persona, in spite of the profound changes in their various relationships, and the players in this murder case are quirky and opaque.

Guess I'm in the minority (go figure), but IMO, Scarpetta brings back the interest and realism to the series that so many readers have come to love. And some new relationships emerge to explore in future entries.