Dust by Patricia Cornwell

Started: 11/21/13
Finished: 11/28/13
Pages: 495
Year: 2013
Genre: Mystery
Grade: B
Reason for reading: borrowed from library
Blurb (from book jacket): "Massachusetts Chief Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta has just returned from working one of the worst mass murders in the US history when she's awakened at an early hour by Detective Pete Marino.
"A body, oddly draped in an unusual cloth, has just been discovered inside the sheltered gates of MIT, and it's suspected the identity is that of missing computer engineer Gail Shipman, last seen the night before at a trendy Cambridge bar. It appears she's been murdered, mere weeks before the trial in her $100 million lawsuit against her former financial managers, Scarpetta doubts it's a coincidence. She also fears the case may have a connection with computer genius niece, Lucy.
"At a glance there is no sign of what killed Gail Shipman, but she's covered with a fine dust that under ultraviolet light fluorences brilliantly in three vivid colors, what Scarpetta calls a mineral fingerprint. Clearly the body has been posed with chilling premeditation that is symbolic and meant to shock, and Scarpetta has reason to worry that the person responsible is the Capital Murderer, whose most recent sexual homicides have terrorized Washington, DC. Stunningly, Scarpetta will discover that her FBI profiler husband, Benton Wesley, is convinced that certain people in the government, including his boss, don't want the killer caught."
Opinion: Fairly good Scarpetta book. A little long but nicely ties up at the end. Marino and Lucy play the same critical supportive roles that they always have in Cornwell's books.