Harper Academic

Depraved Heart

A Scarpetta Novel

by Patricia Cornwell

On Sale: 07/27/2021

Price: $9.99

Depraved Heart

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Depraved Heart

A Scarpetta Novel

by Patricia Cornwell

On Sale: 07/27/2021

Format:

Price: $9.99

About the Book

#1 New York Times bestselling author Patricia Cornwell’s 23rd Scarpetta novel is a “heart-stopping, paranoia-fueled, propulsively readable, viscerally suspenseful, disconcertingly shifty”* thriller in which Kay must save her niece from a diabolical set-up.

*Providence Journal

Dr. Kay Scarpetta is working a suspicious death scene in Cambridge, Massachusetts, when an emergency alert sounds on her phone. A video link lands in her text messages and seems to be from her computer genius niece, Lucy. But how can it be? It’s clearly a surveillance film of Lucy taken almost twenty years ago.

As Scarpetta watches she begins to learn frightening secrets about her niece, whom she has loved and raised like a daughter. That film clip and then others sent soon after raise dangerous legal implications that increasingly isolate Scarpetta and leave her not knowing where to turn. She can’t tell her FBI husband, Benton Wesley, or her investigative partner, Pete Marino. Not even Lucy.

Soon Scarpetta is launched on an intensely psychological odyssey that includes the mysterious death of a Hollywood mogul’s daughter, aircraft wreckage on the bottom of the sea in the Bermuda Triangle, a grisly gift left in the back of a crime scene truck, and more videos from the past that threaten to destroy her entire world and everyone she loves. And when the FBI raid Lucy’s estate and begin building a case that could send her to prison for the rest of her life, there’s only one person who can save her...

Critical Praise

“Dr. Kay Scarpetta, who keeps us coming back to Patricia Cornwell’s sprawling crime novels, is one tough broad. … Once Scarpetta decides to ferret out Lucy’s secrets, the novel becomes more of a psychological thriller.” — New York Times Book Review

“Scarpetta’s current case, Lucy’s troubles with the Feds, and Carrie’s spooky blast from the past are all on an inevitable collision course, and Cornwell shows surprising restraint in reining in her plot and keeping it tightly focused on her well-developed core characters.” — Publishers Weekly

“Another gritty, world-weary tale of mayhem by masterful mysterian Cornwell. . . . Terse and tangled, messy and body-fluidy, and altogether satisfying.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Dark and cleverly plotted.” — Booklist

“Cornwell’s demonic plot shifts and changes almost page by page, so the reader’s spun round not knowing what to believe… This intense rush of a mystery will keep you guessing up until the very scary conclusion.” — Providence Journal

“Another gritty, world-weary tale of mayhem by masterful mysterian Cornwell. . . . Terse and tangled, messy and body-fluidy, and altogether satisfying.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Dr. Kay Scarpetta, who keeps us coming back to Patricia Cornwell’s sprawling crime novels, is one tough broad. . . . Once Scarpetta decides to ferret out Lucy’s secrets, the novel becomes more of a psychological thriller…” — New York Times Book Review

“Heart-stopping, paranoia-fueled, propulsively readable, viscerally suspenseful, disconcertingly shifty… Cornwell’s demonic plot shifts and changes almost page by page, so the reader’s spun round not knowing what to believe… This intense rush of a mystery will keep you guessing up until the very scary conclusion.” — Providence Journal

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Product Details

  • ISBN: 9780063114944
  • ISBN 10: 0063114941
  • Imprint: William Morrow Paperbacks
  • On Sale: 07/27/2021
  • Trimsize: 4.750 in (w) x 7.000 in (h) x 1.130 in (d)
  • Pages: 512
  • List Price: $9.99
  • BISAC1 : FICTION / Thrillers / Terrorism
  • BISAC2 : FICTION / Mystery & Detective / Women Sleuths
  • BISAC3 : FICTION / Science Fiction / General
  • BISAC4 : FICTION / Thrillers / Suspense
  • BISAC5 : FICTION / Thrillers / Crime
  • BISAC6 : FICTION / Thrillers / Legal
  • BISAC7 : FICTION / Thrillers / Medical
  • BISAC8 : FICTION / Legal
  • BISAC9 : FICTION / Mystery & Detective / Amateur Sleuth
  • BISAC10 : FICTION / Thrillers / Psychological