Black Notice

Black Notice is a crime novel by the American writer Patricia Cornwell, published in 1999. It is the tenth book in the series starring Dr. Kay Scarpetta, chief medical examiner of Richmond, Virginia. The novel opens with Scarpetta still shaken by the tragic loss of Benton Wesley, when she receives a letter he wrote before his death, left with Senator Lord, who was to deliver it a year later.

The plot begins with the discovery of a body in a container arriving from Belgium, bearing the French inscription "Bon voyage, le loup-garou". The dead man belongs to one of the richest and oldest families of Paris, the Chandonnes, who live in an ancient mansion on the Île Saint-Louis. It is also rumored that the family conceals a son with hypertrichosis, a rare condition that covers the body in hair, who is believed to have committed several murders in France. The investigation takes Scarpetta and Marino to Paris and then back to Richmond, where they confront a case involving a woman brutally killed in a small shop, as well as internal sabotage led by the deputy police chief, Diane Bray.

The novel interweaves criminal intrigue with a growing personal tension that culminates in an attack on the protagonist in her own home. Its structure alternates between European and American settings and keeps the focus on forensic work as an investigative tool. Like much of the series, it was a commercial success and helped establish Cornwell as one of the most widely read figures in contemporary crime fiction, though its treatment of violence and of the protagonist's private life has been debated by critics.