Baltimore, MD

Home to Dr. Kay Scarpetta's renowned alma mater, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore is the destination for a quick trip by Kay and her "guardian angel," Lt. Pete Marino. They bring tissue samples from a potential suicide, Sterling Harper, for special polarimeter testing. Sterling has been an outpatient for several years in the oncology clinic. Kay and Pete also visit the luxurious Harbor Court Hotel where they learn that Sterling and murder victim Beryl Madison—ostensibly her daughter—visit several times and stay gratis.

Chamberlayne Gardens

An expensive but grimly depressing retirement home in Richmond, VA, Chamerlayne Gardens is home to the widow Mrs. McTigue, who works as a volunteer for the Daughters of the American Revolution. Mrs. McTigue books a speaking engagement for novelist Beryl Madison, whose books she adores, having learned her true name from her late husband, a contractor for famed novelist...