For readers who want a well-crafted suspense story, skip this immature, feeble attempt at mystery. In this particular selection, Kay Scarpetta is an emotional cripple as testified to by the rampant adjectives that describe her delicate condition post her lover's death. This novel was grossly disappointing because of its consistent use of similes that test the patience of any well-read reader. Similes are sprinkled everywhere as if someone wrote a prescription for this novel that ordered a certain amount making the work silly, almost laughable. For a professional cornoner, the main character is both unprofessional, consistently a blithering woman and hangs onto a detective, in Marino, who was grabbed out of the 1950's with his wisecracking, emotional outbursts, and immature and unprofessional behavior of a New York City dectective. Sorry, but this novel is just plain a waste of any intelligent reader's time.