August 12, 2024
In father/son duo Jonathan and Jesse Kellerman’s entertaining latest case for PI Clay Edison (after The Burning), the former coroner heads to rural California to unwind inconsistencies in a dead woman’s estate. A San Francisco man named Chris Villareal asks Clay for a meeting at his recently deceased grandmother’s home on the outskirts of the city. While going through the late woman’s papers, Chris has discovered a series of mysterious monthly payments that added up to more than $50,000, and he wants Clay to determine what the money was for. Clay’s search takes him to the tiny, heavily forested Northern Californian hamlet of Swann’s Flat—population 13—where it turns out Chris’s grandmother owned property. Once there, Clay is faced with hostile, gun-toting locals, and he stumbles into the case of a missing young man that’s being pursued by an unfriendly fellow PI. Eventually, everything connects in a smartly orchestrated conspiracy. The Kellermans skillfully connect the plot’s many dots without skimping on character development—Clay’s rapport with his wife, Amy, who worries about the dangers of his profession, rings especially true. Series fans and newcomers alike will enjoy themselves.
