Physically and psychologically bruised by her encounter with the killer Chandonne, Dr Kay Scarpetta has to leave her home in the hands of the police team investigating the attack. She finds shelter with an old friend, Anna Zenner, but it is not the haven of security she needs when she discovers that Anna has been sub-poenaed to appear before a Grand Jury which is investigating Scarpetta for murder. Kay knows she is being framed and she also knows she can trust no-one.
I really like Tom Sharpe. But after reading the South African novels and then jumping ahead to Blott on the Landscape (a classic), I was disappointed in this one. I have a difficult time with novels wherein the protagonist an unlikeable jerk. I had no empathy for him whatsoever. The book had a contrived setup for the main plot device (the hostage situation), which took up half the book. The foreign student was poorly developed and her mid-narrative personality shift was quite hard to swallow. The only saving grace in the book was Wilt's wife, who has a force of character that stole the show. She should have been the protagonist.
