Chaos by Patricia Cornwell

 

Dr. Kay Scarpetta should be feeling fine.  It's a hot summer evening in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and she's walking to a fine restaurant to have supper with her husband.  Along the way, she encounters a young English woman on a bicycle several times and they stop and chat a bit.  Her husband is waiting and they order a wonderful meal.  That's about as good as it gets.

As they sit Kay and her husband both get calls which can only mean a suspicious death has occurred. Kay is the chief medical examiner while her husband is an FBI profiler.  Kay's investigative partner, Pete, comes by and picks her up. They drive to a park and there they find the body of the young woman Kay had met on her stroll, now dead with no apparent cause.

There are other things happening to Kay.  Someone is posting items about her on social media claiming that she is erratic and shouldn't be trusted with such a sensitive job.  Her husband and partner have both been getting false emergency calls, close to the situation implying knowledge but claiming to come from official sources which isn't true.  Kay has been getting threatening emails.  She suspects this could be the psychopath who has been tracking her niece for some time and who is back on the loose after escaping the secured psychiatric hospital where she had been imprisoned.

This is the 24th Kay Scarpetta novel.  Those who have been following the series will be interested in the further events in the lives of the continuing characters.  Those who are reading this as a stand alone will get enough of the background to make it an enjoyable read.  As always, Kay finds a way to solve the intriguing death and the events happening in the background that are the true cause.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.