Review: Dust by Patricia Cornwell

A Mysterious Review of Dust by Patricia Cornwell. A Kay Scarpetta Mystery.

Review summary: The storyline here is a complicated one, as most featuring Kay Scarpetta are, but one that can readily be followed and one that holds the reader's interest. It is definitely one of the better entries in this fine, long-running series. (Click here for text of full review.)

Our rating:

Dust
Patricia Cornwell
A Kay Scarpetta Mystery
Putnam (November 2013)

Publisher synopsis: Massachusetts Chief Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta has just returned from working one of the worst mass murders in U.S. history when she's awakened at an early hour by Detective Pete Marino.

A body, oddly draped in an unusual cloth, has just been discovered inside the sheltered gates of MIT and it's suspected the identity is that of missing computer engineer Gail Shipton, last seen the night before at a trendy Cambridge bar. It appears she's been murdered, mere weeks before the trial of her $100 million lawsuit against her former financial managers, and Scarpetta doubts it's a coincidence. She also fears the case may have a connection with her computer genius niece, Lucy.

At a glance there is no sign of what killed Gail Shipton, but she's covered with a fine dust that under ultraviolet light fluoresces brilliantly in three vivid colors, what Scarpetta calls a mineral fingerprint. Clearly the body has been posed with chilling premeditation that is symbolic and meant to shock, and Scarpetta has reason to worry that the person responsible is the Capital Murderer, whose most recent sexual homicides have terrorized Washington, D.C. Stunningly, Scarpetta will discover that her FBI profiler husband, Benton Wesley, is convinced that certain people in the government, including his boss, don't want the killer caught.

Scarpetta and her colleagues are up against a force far more sinister than a sexual predator who fits the criminal classification of a "spectacle killer". The murder of Gail Shipton soon leads deep into the dark world of designer drugs, drone technology, organized crime, and shocking corruption at the highest levels.