| A badly decomposed body is found in the cargo hold of one of the main ships docking in Richmond, Virginia. Dr Kay Scarpetta is called in to investigate. Her efforts to identify the 'black notice' (unidentified corpse) take her to interpol headquarters in France where she meets Jay Talley who's background is as murky as he is charming to Kay. She is joined by suspended Richmond police officer, Pete Marino who was suspended by the overbearing, new female chief of police, diane bray, who generates friction with Kay over her handling of her cases. A killer later makes himself prominent as 'le loup garou' or the werewolf.
Of course he is not a real werewolf but a deranged man with a condition called hypertrichiosis who has been alienated and concealed by his family all his life. | ||
|
Plot & Themes Tone of story - How difficult to spot villain? - Challenging What % of story relates directly to the mystery, not the subplot? - 80% Misc. Murder Plotlets - - Big focus on forensic evidence - Big focus on autopsies Kid or adult book? - Adult or Young Adult Book Crime Thriller Yes Murder Mystery (killer unknown) Yes General Crime (including known murderer) Yes Who's the criminal enemy here? - drug dealers - finding a known killer Main Character Gender - Female Profession/status: Age: - 40's-50's Ethnicity/Race Unusual characteristics: Main Adversary Identity: - Male Age: - long-lived adults Profession/status: Motive of antagonist - kicks The antagonists are: - Drug kingpins Monster of some sort? Yes Kind of monster: - the Wolfman How sensitive is this character? Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor Intelligence - Very much smarter than other characters Setting United States Yes The US: - Northeast Europe Yes European country: - France Misc setting - scientific labs Writing Style Accounts of torture and death? - very gorey references to deaths/dead bodies and torture A lot of techno jargon? Yes Kind of jargon? - biology/medical Unusual forms of death - perforation--swords/knives Unusual form of death? Yes Amount of dialog - significantly more descript than dialog |
||