Flesh and Blood

Flesh and Blood
Patricia Cornwell

It’s Chief Medical Examiner Dr Kay Scarpetta’s birthday, and while she’s enjoying a leisurely morning, a man is shot dead five minutes from her house. The bullet tore through him as he unloaded groceries from his car. Yet nobody heard or saw a thing.It looks like the work of a serial sniper – one who leaves no trace except for tiny copper fragments, and whose seemingly impossible shots cause instant death. As Scarpetta investigates, uncovering details that only she can analyze, she begins to suspect that the killer is sending her a message.Adding to Scarpetta’s growing unease is the sense that those closest to her are keeping secrets. And when her pursuit of the sniper takes Scarpetta to a shipwreck off the Florida coast, she comes face to face with shocking evidence that implicates her niece Lucy – Scarpetta’s very own flesh and blood…

COPYRIGHT (#ulink_5c704d87-d381-5a1c-a6b1-b3ea7e779e8b)

Published by HarperCollinsPublishers

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Published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2014

Copyright © Cornwell Entertainment, Inc. 2014

Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers 2015

Cover photograph © Henry Steadman

Patricia Cornwell asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

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HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.

Source ISBN: 9780007552450

Ebook Edition © NOVEMBER 2014 ISBN: 9780007552443

Version: 2017-05-08

DEDICATION (#ulink_9eb8f7c1-8d94-52a4-bb04-bc59a955c7fe)

To Staci

Wisdom entereth not into a malicious mind, and science without conscience is but the ruin of the soul.

– FRANÇOIS RABELAIS, 1532

CONTENTS

Cover (#u60db9b50-e672-53a7-abc9-da0edf55e44c)

Title Page (#ua633a493-ac95-598a-ae5f-21c5a40b044a)

Copyright (#u65786123-0ac4-54be-b145-f7f3285ea00d)

Dedication (#u7f2457df-b296-5789-8aaf-bfc45e0db2ea)

Epigraph (#ufa9e7cf1-92d8-59c1-a18f-3a62fadd8542)

Chapter 1 (#ucf348cc5-87ea-56d1-8042-b07e8a296a55)

Chapter 2 (#ud8f61728-3d69-5941-bf3c-f3dd5bdcce68)

Chapter 3 (#u13a4d677-1efc-5995-9ebb-5e36433c3e0d)

Chapter 4 (#u0cf5d946-3850-505a-812f-d5abc6f51c1d)

Chapter 5 (#u5b58a4bb-21f6-576e-9055-82ddf5594a9e)

Chapter 6 (#u024b8ca2-9259-523f-96c6-f06e324512ae)

Chapter 7 (#ufd760e93-0065-5fb5-b447-81e4adca3718)

Chapter 8 (#uac137bae-b126-571e-87b4-350e704fa984)

Chapter 9 (#u06fc8e23-aabd-5a79-94cc-0a60aa58bffd)

Chapter 10 (#uf6ba5e93-ae8f-5b4d-8649-23b46fae4aa9)

Chapter 11 (#u74ecaecc-8b47-59d2-a130-6e3988974e12)

Chapter 12 (#u25d8b0e3-e6b8-5a53-9f0b-9318c8ecd589)

Chapter 13 (#ufe024dab-c852-5308-b982-f24f4a290cc0)

Chapter 14 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 15 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 16 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 17 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 18 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 19 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 20 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 21 (#litres_trial_promo)