Sa sirotinjskoga groblja

The main character, Virginia's top forensics expert Kay Scarpetta, is faced with a gruesome discovery: the body of a woman in a frozen lake in Richmond, with clues leading to serial killer Temple Gault - a white, intelligent and elusive monster from the past.

As snow blankets the city, Scarpetta, with the help of FBI investigator Pete Marino and lover Benton Wesley, follows computer clues: Gault uses early hacking techniques and credit card manipulation, leaving messages like "Christmas cards" at crime scenes. The plot escalates from laboratory analysis (ballistics, toxicology, DNA) to city chases: from New York's underground tunnels to the snowy wastelands, where Gault plays cat and mouse, revealing Scarpetta's obsession.

Cornwell masterfully dissects forensic science – from autopsies to computer traces – with intimate portraits of the characters: Scarpetta, a strong but vulnerable woman in a man's world, Marino with a Balkan temperament, Lucy, her system-breaking niece. The themes are dark: serial murder as art, the limits of technology in crime, female strength against evil.