La decimosexta entrega de la saga protagonizada por la doctora Scarpetta.
Kay Scarpetta acepta una misión en Nueva York, donde la policía ha requerido su presencia en el hospital penal psiquiátrico para que examine a un herido. El paciente, Oscar Bane, aquejado de enanismo, se niega a ser reconocido por ningún otro médico. Cuando Kay comienza a examinarlo, Bane le cuenta una historia absolutamente rocambolesca.
Acaso Bane es un acosador obsesionado con Scarpetta?
O quizá su relato paranoico es verdad, y es él a quien a espían, persiguen y acosan?
Lo único que Scarpetta sabe con certeza es que una mujer ha sido torturada y asesinada# y que a esta muerte violenta la seguirán otras. Poco a poco, emerge una inexplicable y horrible certeza:
Quienquiera que esté cometiendo los crímenes sabe en todo momento dónde está su presa.
ENGLISH DESCRIPTION
From Americaas #1 bestselling crime writers comes the extraordinary new Kay Scarpetta novel.
Leaving behind her private forensic pathology practice in Charleston, South Carolina, Kay Scarpetta accepts an assignment in New York City, where the NYPD has asked her to examine an injured man on Bellevue Hospitalas psychiatric prison ward. The handcuffed and chained patient, Oscar Bane, has specifically asked for her, and when she literally has her gloved hands on him, he begins to talkaand the story he has to tell turns out to be one of the most bizarre she has ever heard.
The injuries, he says, were sustained in the course of a murder . . . that he did not commit. Is Bane a criminally insane stalker who has fixed on Scarpetta? Or is his paranoid tale true, and it is he who is being spied on, followed and stalked by the actual killer? The one thing Scarpetta knows for certain is that a woman has been tortured and murderedaand more violent deaths will follow. Gradually, an inexplicable and horrifying truth emerges: Whoever is committing the crimes knows where his prey is at all times. Is it a person, a government? And what is the connection between the victims?
In the days that follow, Scarpetta; her forensic psychologist husband, Benton Wesley; and her niece, Lucy, who has recently formed her own forensic computer investigation firm in New York, will undertake a harrowing chase through cyberspace and the all-too-real streets of the cityaan odyssey that will take them at once to places they never knew, and much, much too close to home.
Throughout, Cornwell delivers shocking twists and turns, and the kind of cutting-edge technology that only she can provide. Once again, sheproves her exceptional ability to entertain and enthrall.
Patricia Cornwell (Florida, 1956), directora de Ciencia Forense Aplicada en la National Forensic Academy, ha recibido múltiples galardones en reconocimiento a su obra literaria; destacan los premios Edgar, Creasey, Anthony, Macavity, el francés Prix du Roman d´Aventure, el galardón británico Gold Dagger y el Galaxy British Book Award. En 1999, la doctora forense Kay Scarpetta, protagonista de la mayoría de sus novelas, recibió el premio Sherlock al mejor detective creado por un autor estadounidense. Actualmente se está trabajando en la adaptación cinematográfica de la serie de la doctora Scarpetta a la gran pantalla, con Angelina Jolie como protagonista. La obra de Cornwell ha sido traducida a más de treinta y dos idiomas.
