Crime Series #16

 Scarpetta by Patricia Cornwell 

Almost every single guess I made about this book was wrong. This book starts out with Jack Fielding in a morgue and I was super confused because he quit his job like 2 books ago. Turns out, Kay has left South Carolina after the death of Rose and the fallout with Merino and now she's working at the chief medical examiner in Boston. And she brought Jack with her. Her new Rose is efficient, but he's no Rose. Benton calls Kay and tells her to come to New York, they have a case and a victim and he will only allow Kay to examine him. Oscar is the suspect in the death of Terry, his girlfriend. But, Oscar believes he's being followed by the government. The only guess I was correct about was that Oscar wasn't the killer. He was right, he was being followed, but not by the government. He was being followed by the lead detective on the case who it turns out was a serial killer, but we don't know that until the end. During the course of the investigation we discover that Terry was emailing with "Scarpetta" and those emails made Kay out to be a monster. Because of that, of Terry's hero turning out bad, Terry started a gossip site called Gothem Gotcha, and her main target was Kay. We found out after all was said and done that she got information from Pete's therapist. But, a worm imbedded in a picture of Marilyn Monroe took down the site; Lucy never formally admits to any knowledge of that, but she does tells us how the picture came about. The detective was messing around with Terry and then killed her. He also killed the widow who worked for her on the website because she saw him at a pet shop engaging in animal cruelty. He tries to kill Lucy, but only gives her a flesh wound. He takes Kay and Jamie Burger hostage and Pete shows up. While Pete is trying to find a way to save them Lucy manages to crawl out of the bathroom and kill him. But, Lucy isn't the name on the gun registration and she can't legally carry in New York so Pete fudges the crime scene to keep everyone safe. I was CONVINCED that Dr. Marilyn Self was involved somehow. And I was convinced that Medical Examiner in New York was involved; she was but only indirectly - she's lazy not guilty. I had no idea that Terry was behind the website or that the detective was the one pretending to be Scarpetta. I didn't like him, but I never suspected him. Also, Lucy and Jamie start developing a relationship in this book. I'm not sure how I feel about that since Jamie is 15 years older than Lucy. This kept me on the edge of my seat!