Once again, the forensic detail is what will hook most Scarpetta fans in 'Book of the Dead,' whose title seems descriptive of the inner lives of the characters. Kay Scarpetta's recent relocation to South Carolina, as well as a detour to Rome to consult on the murder investigation of American tennis player Drew Martin, fails to lighten the emotional baggage that's been building through the last few books, and it weighs down this one too. Nevertheless, Cornwell does spin a good mystery. I also liked the shifts in points of view, which, for me, added suspense.

Also recommended: 'A Stranger Lies There' by Stephen Santogrossi, 'Missing Witness' by Gordon Campbell.

Kay Scarpetta and her romantic interest, fellow pathologist Benton Wesley, are in Rome, Italy, where they are consultants assisting the International Investigative Response, a branch of the European Network of Forensic Science Institutes. The case-at-hand is the murder of a beautiful young tennis star, American Drew Martin; her horribly mutilated body was discovered near the Piazza Navona. Italian officials, the FBI, and - of course Scarpetta - are eager to solve this most mysterious and most heinous crime. However, there are very few sensible clues. Bizarre evidence, which is slowly revealed in protracted exposition and helter-skelter narrative, points to a probable serial killer who has been given the moniker The Sandman because of his perverse placement of sand (from some mysterious, unidentifiable location) into the eye-sockets of his victims.

Meanwhile, having hit an apparent dead-end - at least for the time being - in the Drew Martin murder investigation in Rome, Scarpetta, formerly of Richmond, Virginia (at least until her abrupt departure under unpleasant circumstances), returns to her home and office in Charleston, South Carolina, where she - and her investigative assistant, the unpredictable Pete Marino - become involved in investigating another (seemingly unrelated) case, the murder of a young boy. Then things get more and more complicated for Scarpetta (and for Cornwell's readers) as Dr. Marilyn Self ('the most famous psychiatrist in the world' and Scarpetta's relentless nemesis), Shandy Snook (Marino's latest romantic challenge and the unrestrained daughter of a potato chip tycoon), Scarpetta's niece Lucy (all grown-up and extraordinarily resourceful), and assorted other characters (both major and minor, eccentric and ordinary) converge in a slowly evolving case that involves plenty of intriguing relationships and more than a few surprises - especially in the final pages which contain the solution to Cornwell's 405 page enigma. Also, if you missed Tino Georgiou's masterpiece--The Fates, go and read it.

So much for hoping that Cornwell would return to the great stories about Kay Scarpetta, America's top forensic pathologist, and her merry band of helpers. This book is beyond bad. It doesn't deserve even half a star.

Between pages 65, 66 and 67, Cornwell writes

"...he's done the unthinkable."

"...he might be capable of the unthinkable."

"...not if he did the unthinkable."

"He may have done the unthinkable."

"...she hopes ... that the unthinkable hasn't happened."

"Assuming he's done the unthinkable..."

What's *unthinkable* is that this mess got through the editing process. Is there no one brave enough to stand up and say, "Miss Cornwell, this won't do. Bring it back when it's worthy to print or get a ghost writer."?

Lucy, Scarpetta's niece and incredibly wealthy computer genius, is really high maintenance and she just wears me out. Benton, Scarpetta's lover, is a puffed up jealous toad. There's a smarmy Italian doctor after her affections, too. Marino, Scarpetta's investigator, really crosses the line and would be canned in a second by the the original Scarpetta - the brilliant pathologist who lept off the pages when Cornwell was at the top of her game.

The Iraq war figures into the killer's fury. Iraqi sand, blue glue and a lot of missing body parts are supposed to provide intrigue. Not this time. The main characters are actually scarier than the madman. Something's wrong with this picture.

No amount of pre-release hype can save this mess. Once the reviews hit, and readers blog their thoughts and opinions, the book will fall off the side of the world. Good riddance.