SOUTHERN CROSS Patricia Cornwell has a                               sixth sense about the men                               and women in blue. In                Hornet's Nest, her page-turning novel about                crime and police in Charlotte, North Carolina,                Cornwell moved behind the badges of these                real-life heroes to uncover flesh-and-blood                characters who strode through her pages to reveal                vulnerable, passionate, brave, sometimes                doubting, always fascinating figures.                 In Southern Cross, Cornwell takes us even                closer to the personal and professional lives of                big-city police, in a story of corruption, scandal,                and robberies that escalate to murder. This time,                her setting is Richmond, Virginia, where Charlotte                Police Chief Judy Hammer has been brought by                an NIJ grant to clean up the police force. Reeling                from the recent death of her husband, and                resented by the police force, city manager, and                mayor of Richmond, Hammer is joined by her                deputy chief Virginia West and rookie Andy Brazil                on the most difficult assignment of her career. In                the face of overwhelming public scrutiny, the trio                must bring truth, order, and sanity to a city in                trouble.