Crime Series #13

 Trace by Patricia Cornwell 

Another good showing from this series! It had me on the edge of my seat trying to figure out how all of the pieces fit together. Kay is called to consult on a case in Virginia, by the man who took over her job. He is horrible! He's not good at his job, he has let the lab fall to ruin, and to top it off he's just an overall bad guy. So, the case is a 14 year old girl who died seemingly of the flu. But, once Kay and Moreno start looking into the case it becomes obvious that it was murder, not the flu. To make matters more complicated the parents of the girl are going through a messy divorce and the mom hits on Pete. He is open to it. This leads to him having no memory of what happened and he is left with bruises and bit marks all over his body. Kay now has to investigate the mom as well as the death of her daughter. Lucy gets involved and goes to investigate the dad and he is incredibly unprofessional and she gets it all on camera. Also, Lucy has a new girlfriend who at the start of the book was attacked and now to keep her safe she's in Colorado with Benton. During the investigation a construction worker is killed by his tractor and he ends up with the exact same trace elements as were on the dead little girl. Turns out the girl was killed by a former morgue tech, Lucy was the real target (of the same guy!) and the trace on the construction worker came when the killer was taking bodies and ashes from the morgue. This was wild and trying to understand how all of the pieces fit, with the science showing one thing and the rest of the evidence showing something else, was fascinating!