Point of View

The point of view of the novel is first person. Kay Scarpetta is the narrating character. At times Scarpetta is an unreliable narrator because she can only relate to the reader information she knows, and at times she is incorrect. Scarpetta is also unreliable when she is accused of murder and she fails to defend herself to the reader when it is discovered that she made a large cash withdrawal that is consistent with money found to have been given to Susan Story. Even though it turns out that Scarpetta is innocent, her narration allows the reader to wonder if Scarpetta might have committed the crime, or is hiding some other crime that she committed.

The point of view of this novel works well because it establishes a tight connection between the reader and main character from the first sentence of the first chapter. There is...