An investigative journalist is found dead in the frozen waters of Virginia. On the New Year’s weekend, the last crime scene of Virginia's bloodiest year leads Scarpetta thirty feet below the frozen surface of the Elizabeth River. A diver, Ted Eddings, is dead, an investigative journalist who was a favorite at the Medical Examiner's office. Was Eddings exploring the icy depths of the Useless Shipyard for a story or merely diving for buried gems? And why did Scarpetta receive a phone call from someone reporting the death before the police were notified? The case involves Scarpetta, her niece Lucy, and Detective Pete Marino in a world where both modern technology and good old-fashioned detective work are crucial weapons. Together they follow the trail of death into a well of violence as dark and forbidding as the water that swirled above Ted Eddings.