From a New York Times bestselling author, medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta must solve the most terrifying murder case she's ever come across.

In this thrilling installment of the Scarpetta series, chief medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta finds herself in a Northern Virginia wilderness examining the remains of two campers wanted by federal law enforcement.   

The victims have been savaged beyond recognition, and other evidence is terrifying and baffling, including a larger-than-life footprint.     

After one of the most frightening body retrievals of her career, Scarpetta must discover who would commit murders this savage, and why.

In 1990, Patricia Cornwell sold her first novel, Postmortem, while working at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Richmond, Virginia. An auspicious debut, it went on to win the Edgar, Creasey, Anthony, and Macavity Awards, as well as the French Prix du Roman d’Aventures—the first book ever to claim all these distinctions in a single year. Growing into an international phenomenon, the Scarpetta series won Cornwell the Sherlock Award for best detective created by an American author, the Gold Dagger Award, the RBA Thriller Award, and the Medal of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters for her contributions to literary and artistic development. Today, Cornwell’s novels and iconic characters are known around the world. Beyond the Scarpetta series, Cornwell has written the definitive nonfiction account of Jack the Ripper’s identity, cookbooks, a children’s book, a biography of Ruth Graham, and three other fictional series based on the characters Win Garano, Andy Brazil, and Captain Callie Chase. In recent years, Cornwell has been researching space-age technologies at NASA facilities, the U.S. Space Force, and Secret Service. She’s visited Scotland Yard and Interpol, always keeping up with what’s current. Cornwell was born in Miami. She grew up in Montreat, North Carolina, and now lives and works in Boston.