The body was naked, female, and found propped against a fountain in a bleak area of New York's Central Park. Her apparent manner of death points to a modus operandi that is chillingly familiar: the gunshot wound to the head, the sections of skin excised from the body, the displayed corpse- all suggest that Temple Brooks Gault, Scarpetta's nemesis, is back at work.

Calling on all her reserves of courage and skill, and the able assistance of colleagues Marino and Wesley, Scarpetta must track this most dangerous of killers in pursuit of survival as well as justice- heading inexorably to an electrifying climax amid the dark, menacing labyrinths of the New York subway.

Following the critical and commercial csuccess of Patricia Cornwell's five previous bestselling crime novels featuring Dr. Kay Scarpetta, "From Potter's Feild" achieves the remarkable feat of further expanding the range of this gifted author. Superbly crafted, utterly gripping, this is simply her best yet."