title: Scarpetta (A Scarpetta Novel)
author:  Patricia Cornwell 
description: <div> Patricia Cornwell's most recent bestsellers include Red Mist, Port Mortuary, and Portrait of a Killer: Jack the RipperCase Closed. Her earlier works include Postmortemthe only novel to win five major crime awards in a single yearand Cruel and Unusual, which won Britains prestigious Gold Dagger Award for the best crime novel of 1993. Dr. Kay Scarpetta herself won the 1999 Sherlock Award for the best detective created by an American author.</div>
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  ![Cover](images/cover.png)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## Trace
  
  
    
  
  
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  _( Kay Scarpetta - 13 )_
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Patricia Cornwell
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## Patricia Cornwell
  
  
  
  
  
  ## Trace
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  A Kay Scarpetta Novel
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## 1
  
  
  
  
  
  Yellow bulldozers and excavators hack earth and stone in an old city Dlock
  that has seen more death than most modern wars, and Kay Scarpetta slows her
  rental SUV almost to a stop. Shaken by the destruction ahead, she stares at
  the mustard-colored machines savaging her past.
  
  
  "Someone should have told me," she says.
  
  
  Her intention this gray December morning was innocent enough. All she wanted
  was to indulge in a little nostalgia and drive past her old building, not
  having a clue that it was being torn down. Someone could have told her. The
  polite and kind thing would have been to mention it, at least say, Oh, by the
  way, that building where you used to work when you were young and full of
  hopes and dreams and believed in love, well,