Black Notice

Under cover of night in Richmond, Virginia, a human monster strikes, leaving a gruesome trail of stranglings that has paralysed the city. Medical examiner Kay Scarpetta suspects the worst: a deliberate campaign by a brilliant serial killer whose signature offers precious few clues. With an unerring eye, she calls on the latest advances in forensic research to unmask the madman.

Dublin, Ireland and Richmond, Virginia: separated by thousands of miles - linked by murder. Five dismembered, beheaded bodies were found in Ireland five years ago - now four have been discovered in the States. But the tenth corpse in Virginia is different. A copy-cat killing. Ghoulish, perhaps, but not unusual. Then abject terror grips Scarpetta and her colleagues when the next body is found with a clear and horrifying message: the killer is armed with the most lethal weapon on earth - smallpox.

Der grausame Mord an der elfjährigen Emily Steiner schockiert die Kleinstadt Black Mountain. Die Gerichtsmedizinerin Kay Scarpetta steht zunächst vor unlösbaren Rätseln. Doch dann deuten Spuren an der verstümmelten Leiche auf einen Täter hin, der aus Emilys engstem Umfeld stammen muss. Wurde das Mädchen Opfer einer düsteren Familientragödie? Kay Scarpettas Untersuchungen in dem Mordfall des elfjährigen Mädchens laufen anfangs ins Leere, da Emilys Tod einfach zu viele Fragen aufwirft.

Deputy Chief Virginia West likes her boss. But when a number of visiting businessmen are murdered in her city by a maniac with a penchant for painting his victims bright orange, she objects to his edict that a rookie reporter accompany her on patrol.

Grace Warner spends her days teaching four sections of Beowulf for Cretins to bored students at one of New England's “hidden ivy” colleges. Not long after she is dumped by her longtime girlfriend, Grace meets the engaging and mysterious Abbie on a cross-country flight. Sparks fly on and off the plane as the two strangers give in to one night of reckless passion with no strings attached and no contact information exchanged. Back home at St. Albans, the college rocks Grace's world when it announces the appointment of a new president, the first woman in its 165-year history: Abbie.

When forensic pathologist Lucy Trask stumbles across a mutilated body with its face so badly damaged it is unrecognisable by the chess tables in her local Baltimore park, her sole concern is that it might be her old school teacher Mr Pugh. When the corpse is identified, Lucy is shocked to discover that the victim is actually another man from her past. Who killed him and why his skin is burnt with the number '1' is unclear, but it's evident that someone is demanding Lucy's attention.

New York City is thrown into chaos by the assaults of the Bone Collector, a serial kidnapper and killer who gives the police a chance to save his victims from death by leaving obscure clues. The cops go to Lincoln Rhyme, an ex-NYPD forensics expert left paralysed after an accident on the job. Rhyme reluctantly postpones his ambitions towards suicide and puts together a forensic investigation team, enlisting as his eyes and ears young police officer Amelia Sachs.

The 1st novel in James Patterson's Women's Murder Club series. As the only woman homicide inspector in San Francisco, Lindsay Boxer has to be tough. But nothing she has seen prepares her for the horror of the honeymoon murders, when a brutal maniac begins viciously slaughtering newlywed couples on their wedding nights. Lindsay is sickened by the deaths, but her determination to bring the murderer to justice is threatened by her own personal tragedy.

Moving between the chill of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the sultry humidity of Knoxville, Tennessee, Winston Garano, a police investigator, is instructed to look into a 20-year-old murder case. Although Win reckons there are many more pressing current cases which should have higher priority, he gets on with the task, unaware of the can of worms he will prise open.

It's the night of the full Cold Moon: the month of December according to the lunar calendar. A young man is found dead in lower Manhattan, the first in a series of victims of a man calling himself the Watchmaker. This killer's obsession with time drives him to plan the murders with the precision of fine timepieces, and the victims die prolonged deaths while an eerie clock ticks away their last minutes on earth.