Thalia

In the week before Christmas, Kay Scarpetta, suffering (as are so many of us) from the credit crunch, decides to work on a pro bono basis for the office of the Chief Medical Examiner of New York City. But Kay finds the spotlight this puts her under is not a comfortable one, when she is asked (during a live broadcast) about the disappearance of a wealthy woman, Hannah Starr, who is presumed to be dead. This is followed by a strange call from an ex-patient of Kay's psychiatrist partner, Benton Wesley - and Kay finds a suspicious package when she returns home - is it a bomb? She finds that the missing woman had secrets she shared with Kay's gay niece Lucy.