A veteran seaman drowns within yards of his yacht. A Russian immigrant is shot dead while digging an illegal grave. A politician succumbs to a rare cancer after receiving the best medical treatment money and power can buy. The cases seem unrelated ... except that the brilliant Joanna Blalock is investigating them all, with her uncanny ability to pry secrets from the dead. One autopsy defies medical logic. Another defies nature. But the separate strands of evidence seem to be leading to the same chilling end ... a state-of-the-art genetics lab where an experimental miracle cure may be medicine's worst nightmare...