Cruel And Unusual

The fingerprints say the murderer is the man who's just been executed...

At 11.05 one December evening in Richmond, Virginia, convicted murderer Ronnie Joe Waddell is pronounced dead in the electric chair. At the morgue, Dr. Kay Scarpetta waits for Waddell's body. Preparing to perform a post-mortem before the subject is dead is a strange feeling, but Scarpetta has been here before.

And Waddell's death is not the only newsworthy event on this freezing night: the grotesquely wounded body of a young boy is found propped against a rubbish skip. To Scarpetta, the two cases seem unrelated, until she recalls that the body of Waddell's victim had been arranged in a strikingly similar position...

Cruel And Unusual by Patricia Cornwell is a gripping tale that challenges the boundaries between justice and vengeance, drawing readers into a web of mystery and intrigue.