Typically, the arrival of a new Kay Scarpetta novel will excite me greatly. I was doubly eager to dive into IDENTITY UNKNOWN because I had learned that a Prime Video series based on the books, starring Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis, is in the works.

Fans of the book series have watched these characters change and evolve over 30+ years, perhaps none more so than Scarpetta’s niece, Lucy Farinelli. Many will fondly remember Lucy as a feisty, freckle-faced little girl. Now, she is a Secret Service agent who has the unfortunate duty of calling Scarpetta to make her aware of a bizarre death. The nude body of an adult male was found in the middle of an abandoned Wizard of Oz-themed amusement park. The victim was Nobel laureate Sal Giordano, Scarpetta’s good friend and brief lover.

"IDENTITY UNKNOWN shows that Patricia Cornwell has no intention of slowing down, and this stellar series remains as relevant and intriguing as ever."

Apparently, Giordano had been dropped from a UAP. To Scarpetta and her law enforcement partner, Pete Marino, that’s a fancy term for UFO. It turns out that Giordano was obsessed with life on other planets and the existence of UFOs, so his cause of death is almost a cruel joke. Lucy picks up Scarpetta and Marino by helicopter and flies them there. After seeing the corpse and where it was found, they are taken to a top-secret off-site location where they are sworn to secrecy about these events and questioned by a panel of various government and law enforcement representatives.

This is all on the heels of one of the most unpleasant autopsies Scarpetta has ever conducted, involving the body of Luna, a special-needs child whose father was the wealthy and maniacal Ryder Briley. The seven-year-old appears to have been shot. Her parents are doing all they can to interfere in an effort to cover up what really happened.

During Giordano’s autopsy, witnessed by many VIPs, Scarpetta wonders why his skin is so red and what the blue substance on his body is, which was picked up by infrared screening. She answers many questions, quite a few about her former relationship with the deceased, made all the more uncomfortable since her husband, Benton Wesley, is present. It doesn’t take long for Scarpetta and Lucy to make a connection to the nemesis who has haunted them over the last few years: Lucy’s ex-lover, Carrie Grethen. If she has anything to do with the deaths of Giordano and Luna, then it's safe to assume that she has something really big planned for everyone.

A strange capsule with clear markings on it is found undissolved in Giordano’s stomach, which suggests a handful of different possibilities. It is a real treat to watch Scarpetta and her small team piece together a string of tenuous clues and leads. IDENTITY UNKNOWN shows that Patricia Cornwell has no intention of slowing down, and this stellar series remains as relevant and intriguing as ever.