Poison in the Blood

Dr. Vanessa Marwood is a forensic entomologist, an expert who reconstructs the scene of death through insects found on the bodies of victims. She is also the owner of a stunningly beautiful spider named Nancy – a female cobalt blue tarantula. She knew them well long ago. And now Simon, Tim, and Michael lie dead before her. Their abdomens bear perfectly straight incisions, into which the killer has intricately inserted silk from the golden orb-weaver spider. This is exactly how the tiny males of these spiders place their hormone-soaked threads into the gigantic females to prevent being eaten during mating. The bodies of the men are arranged in a "Y" shape: from this figure, the orb-weavers begin to weave their famous golden webs. Such spiders are not found in Britain, nor in Europe at all. And acquiring web of such extraordinary length is a tremendous art. To create something like this, one must be simply obsessed with arachnids. And with Dr. Marwood. This message is clearly meant for her. Moreover, soon they find another acquaintance of Vanessa dead – this time the killer has imitated the ritual of matrimonial sealing of Apollo butterflies on the corpse…