A disturbing phone call triggers a mystery for medical examiner Kay Scarpetta.
It's New Year's Eve, and another poor soul has turned up dead. Investigative reporter Ted Eddings, a favorite at the medical examiner's office, is found 30 feet below the Elizabeth River's icy surface. Kay Scarpetta, chief medical examiner for the state of Virginia, can't help but wonder why she received a phone call reporting Ted's death before the police were notified. And when another murder occurs—one that hits even closer to home—Scarpetta, her niece Lucy, and Police Captain Pete Marino follow the trail of violence to its forbidding and unexpected source.
