The Body Farm by Patricia Cornwell; Unabridged MP3 Audio Book; Narrator CJ Critt

Little Emily Steiner left a church meeting late one afternoon and strolled toward home along a lakeside path; a week later, her nude body was discovered, bound in blaze-orange duct tape. Called by the North Carolina authorities, forensic pathologist Kay Scarpetta recognizes similarities to the gruesome work of a serial killer who has long eluded the FBI, but as she tries to make sense of the evidence, she is left with questions that lead her to the Body Farm, a little known research facility in Tennessee where, with the help of some grisly experiments, she might discover the answer.

It is Scarpetta alone who can interpret the forensic hieroglyphics that eventually reveal a solution to the case as staggering as it is horrifying. But she must also endeavor to help her niece, Lucy, who is embroiled in controversy at Quantico. And Scarpetta, too, is vulnerable, as she opens herself to the first physical and emotional bond she has felt in far too long a time.

Tenacious and brilliant, tender and gentle, this is Scarpetta even more realized and poignant than we've seen her before--in a stunning achievement from a best-selling author at the peak of her powers.

"It's important for me to live in the world I want to write about," says Patricia Cornwell "If I want a character to do or know something, I try to do or know the same thing." The award-winning former police reporter spent time working both as an employee of the Virginia Chief Medical Examiner's Office and as a volunteer police officer before she wrote her first Kay Scarpetta novel, Postmortem. Her preparation paid off -- Postmortem was the first novel ever to win the Edgar, Creasey, Anthony, Macavity, and French Prix du Roman d'Aventure awards in one year. She has followed that up with ten other bestselling novels featuring Kay Scarpetta. Ms. Cornwell then began a new series with her #1 New York Times bestsellers Hornet's Nest and Southern Cross. She is also the author of two cookbooks, Scarpetta's Winter Table and Food to Die For; A Time for Remembering, a biography of Ruth Bell Graham, wife of evangelist Billy Graham; a children's book, Life's Little Fable; and her #1 bestselling work of nonfiction, Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper -- Case Closed. She lives in New York City.