The Scarpetta Factor

It is the week before Christmas. A tanking economy has prompted Dr. Kay Scarpettaƒ??despite her busy schedule and her continuing work as the senior forensic analyst for CNNƒ??to offer her services pro bono to New York Cityƒ??s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. In no time at all, her increased visibility seems to precipitate a string of unexpected and unsettling events, culminating in an ominous packageƒ??possibly a bombƒ??showing up at the front desk of the apartment building where she and her husband, Benton, live. Soon the apparent threat on Scarpettaƒ??s life finds her embroiled in a surreal plot that includes a famous actor accused of an unthinkable sex crime and the disappearance of a beautiful millionaire with whom her niece, Lucy, seems to have shared a secret past.

Scarpettaƒ??s CNN producer wants her to launch a TV show called The Scarpetta Factor. Given the bizarre events already in play, she fears that her growing fame will generate the illusion that she has a ƒ??special factor,ƒ? a mythical ability to solve all her cases. She wonders if she will end up like other TV personalities: her own stereotype.