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 ...
Anna Rusconi Books






Unnatural Exposure
- 367 pages
- 13 hours of reading
A body is discovered in a Virginia landfill. The details --- expert removal of head and limbs --- mirror that of a case Dr. Kay Scarpetta has been investigating in Ireland. But for Scarpetta, the game has only just begun. The killer boldly contacts her via the Internet, signing off with the ominous screen name deadoc. As her investigation deepens, Scarpetta discovers that the victim in Virginia was exposed to a rare smallpox-like virus before she was killed, and that Scarpetta herself could be infected. Now she knows she is up against a killer unlike any she has pursued before --- a relentless psychopath with access to an incredibly sophisticated arsenal of deadly force. And with a very personal interest in seeing Kay Scarpetta suffer.
Resurrection Men
- 484 pages
- 17 hours of reading
Rebus is off the case literally. A few days into a murder inquiry following the brutal death of an Edinburgh art dealer, Rebus blows up at DCS Gill Templer. He is sent to the Scottish Police College for 'retraining' in other words, he's in the Last Chance Saloon. Rebus is given an old, unsolved case to work on, in order to teach him and others the merits of teamwork. But there are those in the team who have their own secrets and they'll stop at nothing to protect them. As if this wasn't enough, Rebus is asked to act as a go between for gangster 'Big Ger' Cafferty. And as newly promoted DS Siobhan Clarke works the case of the murdered art dealer, she is brought closer to Cafferty than she could ever have anticipated ...
When three bodies are discovered at Queensbury House, home to the new Scottish Parliament, Rebus finds himself digging up secrets twenty years buried.
From Potter's field
- 369 pages
- 13 hours of reading
Dr. Kay Scarpetta matches wits with a sadistic killer who infiltrates the FBI's top-secret artificial intelligence system and closes in on Scarpetta herself
The Body Farm
- 387 pages
- 14 hours of reading
The fifth novel in the best-selling Dr Kay Scarpetta series.
Cause of Death
- 370 pages
- 13 hours of reading
An investigative reporter is found dead in Virginia's icy waters ... New Year's Eve and the final murder scene of Virginia's bloodiest year takes Scarpetta thirty feet below the Elizabeth River's icy surface. A diver, Ted Eddings, is dead, an investigative reporter who was a favourite at the Medical Examiner's office. Was Eddings probing the frigid depths of the Inactive Shipyard for a story, or simply diving for sunken trinkets? And why did Scarpetta receive a phone call from someone reporting the death before the police were notified? The case envelops Scarpetta, her niece Lucy, and police captain Pete Marino in a world where both cutting-edge technology and old-fashioned detective work are critical offensive weapons. Together they follow the trail of death to a well of violence as dark and forbidding as water that swirled over Ted Eddings.
Alain de Botton's The Consolations of Philosophy takes the discipline of logic and the mind back to its roots. Drawing inspiration from six of the finest minds in history - Socrates, Epicurus, Seneca, Montaigne, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche - he addresses lack of money, the pain of love, inadequacy, anxiety and conformity. De Botton's book led one critic to call philosophy 'the new rock and roll'.
The Naming of the Dead
- 416 pages
- 15 hours of reading
The brilliant new Rebus novel from 'Britain's No. 1 crime writer' [Daily Mirror].
'And in Edinburgh of all places. I mean, you never think of that sort of thing happening in Edinburgh, do you...?' 'That sort of thing' is the brutal abduction and murder of two young girls. And now a third is missing, presumably gone to the same sad end. Detective Sergeant John Rebus, smoking and drinking too much, his own young daughter spirited away south by his disenchanted wife, is one of many policemen hunting the killer. And then the messages begin to arrive: knotted string and matchstick crosses - taunting Rebus with pieces of a puzzle only he can solve.
Dr. Kay Scarpetta, a forensic pathologist and her colleagues, investigates a couple killer.
An Alternate Cover Edition for this ISBN can be found here. The meticulously dismembered body of a woman is discovered in the grounds of an abandoned monastery. 'Too decomposed for standard autopsy. Request anthropologic expertise.' Enter Dr Temperance Brennan, Director of Forensic Anthropology for the province of Quebec, who has been researching recent disappearances in the city. Despite the cynicism of Detective Claudel who heads the investigation, Brennan is convinced that a serial killer is at work. Her forensic expertise finally convinces Claudel, but only after the body count has risen... Tempe takes matters into her own hands, but her determined probing places those closest to her in mortal danger. Can Tempe make her crucial breakthrough before the killer strikes again?
Il bambino con i petali in tasca
- 219 pages
- 8 hours of reading
Bombay, 1993. Chamdi ha dieci anni e vive alle porte della città, lontano dai violenti scontri tra induisti e musulmani, dalle moschee bruciate e dai negozi svaligiati. La sua non è una vera casa, è un orfanotrofio, perché i genitori lo hanno abbandonato appena nato. Il suo mondo è fatto del colore acceso delle bouganville, delle canzoni, dei giochi. E delle preghiere silenziose perché qualcuno arrivi e lo porti via. Ma lui ha un grande sogno, che Bombay si trasformi in una città senza tristezza, un luogo in cui i bambini possono giocare per le strade e in cui non ci sono figli senza genitori. Chamdi sa che quella degli orfani è una vita a metà, i loro occhi non splendono, hanno solo una luce presa in prestito: per questo sembrano tristi anche quando ridono. Così decide di andarsene, di partire alla ricerca del padre, con in tasca una manciata di petali di bouganville. Perdendosi per i vicoli sporchi e affollati, Chamdi incontra Sumdi e la sorella Guddi, che per strada ci vivono fin dalla nascita. E in breve si trova a chiedere l'elemosina insieme a una spaventosa corte dei miracoli al servizio di un bandito senza pietà. Eppure Chamdi non vuole abbandonare i suoi sogni, e quando Guddi sarà in pericolo di vita, scoprirà quanto sia fragile l'innocenza ma quanto forte possa essere l'amicizia.
Are You Somebody?
- 356 pages
- 13 hours of reading
The memoirs of Irish Times journalist Nuala O'Faolain. The book traces her life from childhood in Dublin, through university, to her career in TV and the press, touching on her mother's alcoholism and her growing acceptance of age. This extended edition includes a selection of her journalism.
Destini di vetro
- 288 pages
- 11 hours of reading
Iran, 1920. Shapur, dieci anni, è ansioso per il viaggio a Yadz con suo padre, dove spera di assaporare dolci prelibatezze. Tuttavia, un incidente segna la sua vita: suo padre, umiliato da un reale musulmano, decide di lasciare la sua terra per cercare un destino migliore. Il loro viaggio li porta a Dahanu, vicino a Bombay, dove scoprono un frutto dolcissimo che cambierà le loro vite. Ottant’anni dopo, Shapur è diventato ricchissimo grazie a quella terra e al suo frutto, che considera la sua piantagione e la sua eredità. Ora, pronto a ritirarsi, ha scelto Zairos, il suo giovane e viziato erede, per custodire le sue memorie. Tuttavia, quando Zairos si innamora di una schiava warli, Shapur è costretto a mettere in discussione tutto ciò in cui ha sempre creduto. Questo amore proibito lo porterà a scoprire un segreto di famiglia che il nonno aveva cercato di nascondere per oltre cinquant’anni.








