Postmortem (Cornwell)

Postmortem: (Kay Scarpetta Mysteries #1)
Patricia Cornwell, 1990
Simon & Schuster
352 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781439148129

Summary
Winner, 1991 Edgar Award and Macavity Award for Best First Mystery

Under cover of night in Richmond, Virginia, a human monster strikes, leaving a gruesome trail of stranglings that has paralyzed the city. Four women with nothing in common, united only in death.  Four brutalized victims of a brilliant monster—a "Mr. Nobody", moving undetected through a paralyzed city, leaving behind a gruesome trail of carnage...but few clues.

Medical examiner Kay Scarpetta suspects the worst: a deliberate campaign by a brilliant serial killer whose signature offers precious few clues. With With skilled hands and an unerring eye, she calls on the latest advances in forensic research to unmask the madman. But this investigation will test Kay like no other, because it's being sabotaged from within and someone wants her dead. (From the publisher.);