My first Scarpetta book, and I am pleasantly surprised.
Scarpetta, a pathologist has headless bodies all around her, but one particular body has her confused, an elderly woman practically starved to death, dismembered and headless does not fit with the other bodies. What adds to her confusion is the fact that not only is this lady an elderly lady but she has been decapitated and dismembered covered in some thick oilcloth, she finds fibers attached to the sawed off bones, the victim has some strange pustules on her back.
Then Scarpetta starts receiving messages from the killer, deadoc.
Whilst the investigations are in progress, a woman is found dead with terrible pustules all over body, which points to the dreaded smallpox, supposedly eradicated. Tangier, where the woman is found, is quarantined.
Everyone works frantically on every lead to contain the disease as well as to find the killer, who by now is spreading the smallpox virus through tampered facial sprays.
The killer remains online a minute longer than is safe for him and is located and what follows is shocking.
But Cornwell does leave a few loose ends, what happens to the original kller who had decapitated around 10 bodies. Somehow there is no mention of him/her.
Although we are left in awe of technology, it is scary that the same technology is available to terrible criminals.
Scarier is the thought that biological warfare is so much more dangerous than any other warfare.