Black Notice

"Black Notice" is a crime novel by American writer Patricia Cornwell. It is the tenth book of the Dr. Kay Scarpetta series.

Plot Summary

Dr. Kay Scarpetta is still shocked because of the tragic loss of Benton Wesley. She is trying to carry on but she gets a letter from Benton, written before his death and left to Senator Lord who had to deliver it a year after his death. Dr Scarpetta and Marino start working on a new case after a body is found un a container arriving from Belgium. There is a writing in the container, that says "Bon voyage, le loup-garou" (Have a nice trip, the werewolf). The body has a strange tattoo and wears rich clothes and there are some baby-like hairs in the inner parts of the induments. Kay and Marino got in touch with European Interpol and with Jay Talley, who calls them and made them fly to Paris to meet the Chief medical examiner. They get to know that the body found in the container is a member of the richest and oldest families of Paris, the Chandonnes. It is also rumored that this family has got a son with a rare disease that make hairs grow on his entire body. This person has always been hidden and he is believed of committing some murderers. Kay and Jay have a short liaison and it seems the man is really involved, while Dr Scarpetta tries to keep him at distance. Kay finds out that also Lucy is in part involved in this case, since she is making an operation in Miami that regards a group of smugglers of weapons and drugs. Back to Richmond, Kay and Marino deal with a case of a woman brutalised and killed in a little shop and with attempts from a member of Dr. Scarpetta's team to sabote her. Thanks to Marino, they got to know that the new police chief, Diane Bray, is behind the sabotage because she wants to get control on how investigations and exams are held. Bray is also behind a traffic of drugs but she is killed with the same modus operandi as the young woman of the shop. It is clear that the killer is out there and tries to kill the people involved in the investigation of the man in the container. Dr Scarpetta is in her house when the alarm rings. The police is quick to come but they could not find a thing. After a while, someone knocks at her door saying it is the police for a new control. Kay doesn't have the time to realise that she is under the attack of the werewolf himself. After a struggle she can run away. Her niece Lucy arrives and Kay does her best to stop her from shooting the loup-garou.