Rick Hayden and Laura Fanning of Panacea come across another impossible medical scenario--the gene that makes us human. Or does it? Rick's brother, Keith, a prominent zoologist at NYU, suddenly liquidates his assets and walks out of his job never to be seen again.The only clues they have are his brother's book, which mentions "the god gene"--a gene found only in primates that spontaneously appears in the evolutionary record and controls brain development--and...

Fifteen years ago, Sara Linton's life changed forever when a celebratory night out ended in a violent attack that tore her world apart. Since then, Sara has remade her life. A successful doctor, engaged to a man she loves, she has finally managed to leave the past behind her. Until one evening, on call in the ER, everything changes. Sara battles to save a broken young woman who's been brutally attacked. But as the investigation progresses, led by...

"On a bone-chilling October night, Medical Examiner Rowan Winthorp investigates the death of her daughter's best friend. Hours later, the tragedy hits even closer to home when she makes a devastating discovery--her daughter, Chloe, is gone. But, not without a trace. A morbid mosaic of clues forces Rowan and her husband to question how deeply they really knew their daughter. As they work closely to peel back the layers of this case, they begin to unearth...

Dr. Kay Scarpetta, now living in Charleston, S.C., has started a private forensic pathology practice. Her happy foray into her new life and job is short lived when she finds herself in a battle with the local elected coroner whose covert attempts at sabotage interfere with her job and her residency. Adding further frustration is a series of seemingly unrelated violent deaths in nearby resorts and rural communities, and problems with a prominent patient...

In the quiet of twilight, on an early autumn day, twenty-six-year-old Elisa Vandersteel is killed while riding her bicycle along the Charles River. It appears she was struck by lightning - except the weather is perfectly clear with not a cloud in sight. Dr. Kay Scarpetta, the Cambridge Forensic Center's director and chief, decides at the scene that this is no accidental Act of God.

Georgia detective Will Trent and medical examiner Sara Linton look into the murder of an ex-cop whose body was found at an abandoned construction site, an investigation that uncovers links to Will's troubled past.

In Alberta, an eminent paleontologist disappears from a dinosaur dig site, and at the Cambridge Forensic Center, Kay Scarpetta receives a grisly communication that gives her a dreadful reason to suspect this may become her next case. Scarpetta fears she just may be on her own this time against an enormously powerful and cunning enemy who seems impossible to defeat.

Kay Scarpetta offers her services pro bono to the New York City medical examiner's office, in addition to her duties as CNN's senior forensic analyst, which seems to trigger a series of unsettling events, including an apparent death threat.