Dust is a 2013 crime novel written by crime author Patricia Cornwell, her 21st book by chronological order in the Kay Scarpetta series. It deals with the murder, of a young girl, which bears peculiar resemblance to numerous preceding deaths and puts the female protagonist, Dr Kay Scarpetta to stare in the face of what could possibly be a deep-seated, high-profile bureaucrat conspiracy and a plot which risks her own life at the mercy of a psychopathic serial killer.