From Quebec or Montreal to the Carolinas, deaths and disappearances have come to the attention of forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan. But what do all those events have to do with a century old corpse? At the crime scenes, in the morgue, or in the lab, her forensic expertise are constantly being tested.

Reflecting on twenty years of investigating more than 5,500 death scenes, an NYC death investigator, the second woman ever hired for this role, shares how, in dealing with death every day, she learned surprising lessons about life--and how some of thoselessons saved her from becoming a statistic herself.

Nine-year-old Emily Anne Toussaint is fatally shot on a Montreal street. A North Carolina teenager disappears from her home, and parts of her skeleton are found hundreds of miles away. The shocking deaths propel Tempe Brennan from north to south, and deep into a shattering investigation inside the bizarre culture of outlaw motorcycle gangs -- where one misstep could bring disaster for herself or someone she loves.

"Killing me won't kill the beast" are the last words of rapist-murderer Ronnie Joe Waddell, written four days before his execution. But they can't explain how Dr. Kay Scarpetta finds Waddell's fingerprints on another crime scene -- after she'd performed his autopsy. If this is some sort of game, Scarpetta seems to be the target. And if the next victim is someone she knows, the punishment will be cruel and unusual...

On the eve of a top secret space mission, Captain Calli Chase detects a tripped alarm in the tunnels deep below a NASA research center. A NASA pilot, quantum physicist, and cybercrime investigator, Calli knows that a looming blizzard and government shutdown could provide the perfect cover for sabotage, with deadly consequences. As it turns out, the danger is worse than she thought. A spatter of dried blood, a missing security badge, a suspicious suicide--a...

Dr. Kay Scarpetta, chief medical examiner for Virginia, investigates the sex murder of a girl by an escaped convict. The probe requires exhuming the body for a second autopsy. Lots of information on bodies and autopsies. By the author of Cruel and Unusual.

Leaving behind her private forensic pathology practice in Charleston, South Carolina, Kay Scarpetta accepts an assignment in New York City, where the NYPD has asked her to examine an injured man on Bellevue Hospital's psychiatric prison ward. The handcuffed and chained patient, Oscar Bane, has specifically asked for her, and when she literally has her gloved hands on him, he begins to talk -- and the story he has to tell turns out to be one of the...

Hundreds of threatening emails. Credit accounts hacked. Her apartment burned. A death message found inside a murder victim. Someone has it out for Detective Jane Rizzoli, and she's consumed with finding out who. As clues keep coming and Jane is assigned a bodyguard, Boston's finest are put on the case in a race against time, until medical examiner Dr. Maura Isles disappears, victim of a possible kidnapping.

When an explosive misstep drives a painful wedge between Boston's finest crime-solving colleagues, Jane and Maura must set aside their personal difficulties in order to keep on top of the city's most heinous murder cases. Yet analyzing corpses and tracking killers is child's play compared to the complications that arise from both friends' families. Using intellect & instinct, the best friends do what it takes to regain each other's trust while busting...

When a fly-covered canvas bag floats to the surface of North Carolina's Mountain Island Lake, forensic anthropologist Tempe Brennan is called to the scene. Animal remains? Or could this be related to bone fragments from a human male found nearby? To Tempe's surprise, the decomposed body indicates the person was a female young adult. The profile fits the description of a missing graduate student named Edith Blankenship. Was Blankenship murdered? If...