A farmhouse destroyed by fire A body amongst the ruins Dr Kay Scarpetta Chief Medical Examiner and consulting pathologist for the federal law enforcement agency ATF is called out to a farmhouse in Virginia which has been destroyed by fire. In the ruins of the house she finds a body which tells a story of a violent and grisly murder. The fire has come at the same time as another even more incendiary horror: Carrie Grethen a killer who nearly destroyed the lives of Scarpetta and those closest to her has escaped from a forensic psychiatric hospital. Her whereabouts is unknown but her ultimate destination is not for Carrie has begun to communicate with Scarpetta conveying her deadly - if cryptic - plans for revenge. Chillingly mesmeric in tone labyrinthine in structure Point of Origin is Patricia Cornwell at her most dazzling.
