A convict's fingerprints point to a deadly conspiracy at Angola State Prison in this ';action-packed, cleverly plotted topnotch thriller' (Booklist). After surviving the clutches of a deranged killer, criminal psychologist Kit Franklyn decides to leave police work for a safe, quiet job at a photography gallery. But her retirement is interrupted when her former boss, chief medical examiner Andy Broussard, needs a favor. He wants Franklyn to take a quick trip to Angola and check on a convict named Roland Cicero. If Cicero really is locked in his cell, as the warden claims, then why does a corpse on Broussard's table have his fingerprints? But the errand is anything but routine when Franklyn discovers a murderous conspiracy at the prison. She returns to New Orleans while Broussard heads to Memphis to investigate a suspicious death. But splitting up to follow the threads of a criminal network only makes it easier to get caught in the web. ';All the streamlined thrills and gripping forensic detail Donaldson's fans have come to expect.' Kirkus Reviews
Strange lesions found in the brain of a dead man have forensic pathologist Andy Broussard stumped. Even more baffling are the corpse's fingerprints. They belong to Ronald Cicero, a lifer at Angola State Prison... an inmate the warden insists is still there. Broussard sends psychologist Kit Franklyn to find out who is locked up in Cicero's cell. But an astonishing discovery at the jail and an attempt on her life almost has Kit sleeping with the crawfish in a bayou swamp. And Broussard, making a brilliant deduction about another murder, may soon be digging his own grave.