El libro de los muertos es la decimoquinta novela de Patricia Cornwell protagonizada por la brillante y mordaz forense Kay Scarpetta. Scarpetta se ha instalado en Charleston, donde ha establecido un moderno laboratorio forense en el que trabaja con su equipo: su sobrina Lucy Faranelli, Rose y Pete Marino. En esta ocasion, Scarpetta viaja a Italia para investigar la sadica muerte de Drew Martin, un joven y famoso tenista cuyo cuerpo mutilado ha aparecido en el venerable centro historico de Roma. El asesino es apodado The Sandman por el macabro residuo de arena que deja como una de las escasas pistas de sus crimenes. Las contradictorias pruebas dejan estupefactos a Scarpetta, a Benton Wesley (psicologo forense amante de la doctora) y a los carabinieri italianos. Pronto, Scarpetta y Wesley descubren una inquietante conexion entre la muerte del tenista y el cuerpo inidentificado de un joven en Carolina del Sur; todo parece indicar que se enfrentan a un asesino mas mortifero de lo habitual. / Bestseller Cornwell's 15th novel to feature Dr. Kay Scarpetta (after 2005's Predator) delivers her trademark grisly crime scenes, but lacks the coherence and emotional resonance of earlier books. Soon after relocating to Charleston, S.C., to launch a private forensics lab, Scarpetta is asked to consult on the murder of U.S. tennis star Drew Martin, whose mutilated body was found in Rome. Contradictory evidence leaves Scarpetta, the Italian carabinieri and Scarpetta's lover, forensic psychologist Benton Wesley, stumped. But when she discovers unsettling connections between Martin's murder, the body of an unidentified South Carolina boy and her old nemesis, the maniacal psychiatrist Dr. Marilyn Self, Scarpetta encounters a killer as deadly as any she's ever faced. With her recent switch from first- to third-person narration, Cornwell loses what once made her series so compelling: a window into the mind of a strong, intelligent woman holding her own in a profession dominated by men. Here, the abrupt shifts in point of view slow the momentum, and the reader flounders in excessive forensic minutiae. Reed Business Information