After the appalling death of her lover Benton Wesley at the hands of a serial killer in ‘Point of Origin’, Chief Medical Examiner Dr Kay Scarpetta is trying to live up to the old adage that life goes on, but grief isn’t easily assuaged.

Distraction comes with the discovery of a body in a cargo ship from Belgium recently arrived in Richmond, Virginia. Initially it seems as though it may be the decomposed remains of a stowaway, but Scarpetta’s post-mortem reveals neither a cause of death nor an identification. So the victim’s personal effects and an odd tattoo take Scarpetta on a hunt for information that eventually leads her to Interpol’s headquarters in Lyon.

At first the highly confidential information she receives seems incredible, a bizarre trail of conspiracy and deceit, but inexorably the facts reveal a web of privileged and criminal arrogance which puts Scarpetta directly in harm’s way and places her and those she holds dear at mortal risk.

Read by Lorelei King.

3 hours on 2 cassettes