Kay Scarpetta has arranged to meet an inmate at the high-security Georgia Prison for Women. The prisoner is a convicted sex offender and the mother of a vicious and diabolically brillIant kIller.Against advice, Scarpetta is determined to hear this woman Out  she believes she may hold some answers to the murder of her former deputy. But soon she finds connections to a string of grisly killings.As she learns more, Scarpetta is compelled to conclude that this is only the beginning of a terrifying terrain of conspiracy on an international scale. And she is the only one who can stop it.