Preview of Unnatural Exposure Summary:

The events in the novel continually remind the characters of the need for empathy, especially toward the little people who are affected by large issues. The events on Tangier Island display this theme most forcefully. First, Scarpetta feels profoundly sorry at the suffering of the woman whom the villain managed to infect. Then Scarpetta realizes how terrified of the unknown the naturally selfenclosed and suspicious denizens of Tangier must be when they see helicop ters and workers in safety suits. The government plans to quarantine the Island and perhaps curtail the crabbing industry, the community's lifeblood.

Scarpetta acts as a voice of sympathy in a grim conversation in which officials admit that they may have to shoot islanders who try to take their boats out to get off the island. The quarantine plans are both necessary and heartless, a terrible combination. Scarpetta strives not to be heartless. In...