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Depraved Heart
Patricia Cornwell
No. 1 New York Times bestselling author Patricia Cornwell delivers the twenty-third engrossing thriller in her high-stakes series starring medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta.Dr. Kay Scarpetta is working a suspicious death scene in Cambridge, Massachusetts when an emergency alert sounds on her phone. A video link lands in her text messages and seems to be from her computer genius niece Lucy. But how can it be? It’s clearly a surveillance film of Lucy taken almost twenty years ago.As Scarpetta watches she begins to learn frightening secrets about her niece, whom she has loved and raised like a daughter. That film clip and then others sent soon after raise dangerous legal implications that increasingly isolate Scarpetta and leave her confused, worried, and not knowing where to turn. She doesn’t know whom she can tell – not her FBI husband Benton Wesley or her investigative partner Pete Marino. Not even Lucy.In this new novel, Cornwell launches these unforgettable characters on an intensely psychological odyssey that includes the mysterious death of a Hollywood mogul’s daughter, aircraft wreckage on the bottom of the sea in the Bermuda Triangle, a grisly gift left in the back of a crime scene truck, and videos from the past that threaten to destroy Scarpetta’s entire world and everyone she loves. The diabolical presence behind what unfolds seems obvious – but strangely, not to the FBI. Certainly that’s the message they send when they raid Lucy’s estate and begin building a case that could send her to prison for the rest of her life.In the latest novel in her bestselling series featuring chief medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta, Cornwell will captivate readers with the shocking twists, high-wire tension, and cutting-edge forensic detail that she is famous for, proving yet again why she’s the world’s #1 bestselling crime writer.
Copyright (#u1aea3944-708c-5b65-b040-2585637c74ff)
This novel is entirely a work of fiction.
The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are
the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to
actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is
entirely coincidental.
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2015
Copyright © Cornwell Entertainment, Inc. 2015
Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2016
Cover design and photography © Henry Steadman
Patricia Cornwell asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books
Source ISBN: 9780007552498
Ebook Edition © OCTOBER 2015 ISBN: 9780007552481
Version: 2017-05-08
Dedication (#u1aea3944-708c-5b65-b040-2585637c74ff)
To Staci
LEGAL DEFINITIONS of “DEPRAVED HEART”
Void of social duty and fatally bent on mischief.
MAYESV. PEOPLE, ILLINOIS SUPREME COURT(1883)
Depraved indifference to human life.
PEOPLEV. FEINGOLD, COURT OF APPEALS OF NEW YORK(2006)
The dictate of a wicked, depraved and malignant heart;
Un disposition a faire un male chose; may be either
express, or implied in law.
WILLIAM BLACKSTONE, COMMENTARIESONTHE LAWSOF ENGLAND(1769)
Herr God, Herr Lucifer
Beware
Beware.
Out of the ash
I rise with my red hair
And I eat men like air.
SYLVIA PLATH, “LADY LAZARUS,” 1965
Contents
Cover (#ua406b476-46e7-5413-88a2-70dc41bb89f9)
Title Page (#uabf54a8b-8376-5c28-9118-148d941e80e0)
Copyright (#u16cc89a1-9ee8-58da-b3c8-1ab54b07e95b)
Dedication (#u26d3dde8-64dc-57e9-9310-e567e2db67e9)
Legal Definitions of “Depraved Heart” (#uce14dbb3-af2b-5f11-a686-bae9b0cb0855)
Epigraph (#ud58f9033-2624-515b-b516-c60dd88cdf1f)
Chapter 1 (#u44c35f66-afa0-519c-b2cd-2c568b9b2631)
Chapter 2 (#u896c87d7-d212-512f-85dd-0f5464423e94)
Chapter 3 (#uf43f2460-778f-5c81-ac43-d4c985632129)
Chapter 4 (#ucf0113e9-bf29-5dfc-ab6d-15550b212d1a)
Chapter 5 (#u2e201d84-3a71-5bbd-b75d-00b787e7443f)
Chapter 6 (#ub171bf86-0174-5cb8-a95d-bb682fdc90fe)
Chapter 7 (#ucfa18863-9f4d-5ad1-824d-69b41f2e2845)
Chapter 8 (#u2c3f9173-6c24-5e55-85af-e89c124c4ba3)
Chapter 9 (#uc700c910-13d6-5a5d-b5d7-cdf33092a01e)
Chapter 10 (#uf2302fac-eae1-5d49-b81a-92f34047ea61)
Chapter 11 (#u23dff32e-4c6f-5969-9e13-03baa22b516c)
Chapter 12 (#u9cd39b8d-6108-5923-8b6c-0b66293994a1)
Chapter 13 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 14 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 15 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 16 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 17 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 18 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 19 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 20 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 21 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 22 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 23 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 24 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 25 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 26 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 27 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 28 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 29 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 30 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 31 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 32 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 33 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 34 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 35 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 36 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 37 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 38 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 39 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 40 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 41 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 42 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 43 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 44 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 45 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 46 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 47 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 48 (#litres_trial_promo)
One Week Later (#litres_trial_promo)
Read on for an exclusive extract of the next book in the series, Chaos … (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)
Also by Patricia Cornwell (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
