I took the skull from its evidence bag and gently set it on the stainless steel table. 'Tell me who you are...'

Forensic anthropologist Dr. David Hunter should be at home in London with the woman he loves. Instead, as a favor to a beleaguered colleague, he's on the remote Hebridean island of Runa to inspect a grisly discovery.

Hunter has witnessed death in many guises, but even he is shocked by what he finds: a body almost totally incinerated except for the feet and a single hand. Could it be a textbook case of spontaneous human combustion? The local police are certain it's an accidental death, but Hunter is not convinced. Examining the scorched remains, he finds the evidence he feared. It's clear to him that this was no accident, this was murder.

But as the small, isolated community considers the enormity of Hunter's findings, a catastrophic storm hits the island. The power goes down, communication with the mainland ceases, and then the killing begins in earnest...

Exploding in a series of violent acts and shocking twists, this is the compelling new crime thriller from a brilliant British storyteller.

In the fall of 1888, all of London was held in the grip of unspeakable terror. An elusive madman calling himself Jack the Ripper was brutally butchering women in the slums of London's East End. Police seemed powerless to stop the killer, who delighted in taunting them and whose crimes were clearly escalating in violence from victim to victim.

And then the Ripper’s violent spree seemingly ended as abruptly as it had begun. He had struck out of nowhere and then vanished from the scene. Decades passed, then fifty years, then a hundred, and the Ripper’s bloody sexual crimes became fodder for puzzles, mystery weekends, and crime conventions.

But to Patricia Cornwell, the Ripper murders are not cute little mysteries to be transformed into parlor games or movies but rather a series of terrible crimes that no one should get away with, even after death. Now Cornwell applies her trademark skills for meticulous research and scientific expertise to dig deeper into the Ripper case than any detective before her—and reveal the true identity of this fabled Victorian killer.

In Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper, Case Closed, Cornwell combines the rigorous discipline of twenty-first-century police investigation with forensic techniques undreamed of during the late Victorian era to solve one of the most infamous and difficult serial murder cases in history.

Drawing on unparalleled access to original Ripper evidence, documents, and records, as well as archival, academic, and law-enforcement resources, FBI profilers, and top forensic scientists, Cornwell reveals that Jack the Ripper was none other than a respected painter of his day, Walter Richard Sickert.

Adding layer after layer of circumstantial evidence to the physical evidence discovered by modern forensic science and expert minds, Cornwell shows that Sickert was not only one of Great Britain’s greatest painters but also a serial killer, a damaged diabolical man driven by megalomania and hate.

New information and startling revelations detailed in Portrait of a Killer include the results of more than 100 DNA tests on samples drawn from original Ripper letters and Sickert documents.

After months of menacing phone calls and the feeling that her every move is being watched, successful writer Beryl Madison flees Key West when a terrifying message is scratched on her car. But on the very night she returns to Richmond, she deactivates her burglar alarm and opens her door to someone who nearly decapitates her.

Why did she let him in? This is the question that haunts Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta. And, why is Beryl's latest manuscript missing? Pursuing the answers involves Scarpetta in the murder of another writer - Beryl's jealous mentor.

While she copes with a variety of personal and professional problems, Scarpetta's high-tech forensic skills enable her to collect a body of evidence. Clues that would mean little without her intelligence, compassion, and imagination lead her directly into a nightmare all her own.