Crime Scene: A Novel
Jonathan Kellerman, Jesse Kellerman
Paperback
(Ballantine Books, July 3, 2018)
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ⢠A former star athlete turned deputy coroner is drawn into a brutal, complicated murder in this psychological thriller from a father-son writing team that delivers âbrilliant, page-turning fictionâ (Stephen King). Natural causes or foul play? Thatâs the question Clay Edison must answer each time he examines a body. Figuring out motives and chasing down suspects arenât part of his beatânot until a seemingly open-and-shut case proves to be more than meets his highly trained eye. Eccentric, reclusive Walter Rennert lies cold at the bottom of his stairs. At first glance the scene looks straightforward: a once-respected psychology professor, done in by booze and a bad heart. But his daughter Tatiana insists that her father has been murdered, and she persuades Clay to take a closer look at the grim facts of Rennertâs life. What emerges is a history of scandal and violence, and an experiment gone horribly wrong that ended in the brutal murder of a coed. Walter Rennert, it appears, was a broken manâand maybe a marked one. And when Clay learns that a colleague of Rennertâs died in a nearly identical manner, he begins to question everything in the official record. All the while, his relationship with Tatiana is evolving into something forbidden. The closer they grow, the more determined he becomes to catch her fatherâs killerâeven if he has to overstep his bounds to do it. The twisting trail Clay follows will lead him into the darkest corners of the human soul. Itâs his job to listen to the tales the dead tell. But this time, heâs part of a story that makes his blood run cold.Praise for Crime SceneâYou could drive yourself crazy trying to figure out who wrote what. . . . But whoever came up with the fine line, âWhen I meet new people, theyâre usually dead,â should pat himself on the back.ââThe New York Times Book ReviewâA terrific book . . . Put Crime Scene at the top of your reading pile.ââBookreporter âA character-driven, intricately plotted whodunit . . . Mystery readers will devour the book and look forward to the next father and son collaboration.ââPress Republican