Scarpetta: From potter's field

I'm hooked on the Scarpetta books and can't stop reading one after the other. I wasn't able to explain to myself why till yesterday when I started reading book #11 (Black notice) and realized that behind the "murder of the day" story there is an ongoing one centered on Scarpetta's life and the lives of people around her i.e. Lucy her niece, Benton her lover and Marino her partner in solving crimes. I don't own book #10, so when book #11 started with Benton being dead, I was like wohhh, Benton is dead ??? when did that happen ??? Then I realized that I'm missing a part of an ongoing story.

Now back to book #7: Finally Scarpetta and co. manage to catch Gault the serial killer in New York after he murdered his own twin sister. "Of course" Scarpetta is the one actually caught him, which is kind of rediculous since she is the chief M.E. and not supposed to presonally run after murderes.