The lost coast A novel

Review by Booklist Review

In the fifth Clay Edison novel, a seemingly straightforward case gets uncomfortably convoluted. It's been about a year since Clay left the police force as a deputy coroner. He's a private investigator now, enjoying the relative simplicity of the cases he works on. When a client presents him with what appears to be a typical case of land fraud, Clay doesn't anticipate any serious problems in the investigation. Turns out he's wrong--dead wrong. The Kellermans, father and son, have done a fine job with this series, introducing Clay Edison in 2017's Crime Scene as a principled, determined man who has an unerring sense of when the circumstances surrounding a death are suspicious. It was a smart move to take Clay out of the coroner's office, broadening the range of cases he might investigate and making sure the series doesn't devolve into increasingly improbable stories, like some other series have. Readers will thoroughly enjoy this novel, and should probably settle in for many more Clay Edison mysteries.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

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. (Aug.)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

Father and son Kellerman collaborate on the fifth Clay Edison PI adventure. On Northern California's Lost Coast, the executor of a woman's estate needs help sorting out some curious monthly payments the deceased had been making. Having no luck with one private investigator, she asks Oakland ex-cop turned PI Clay Edison. Soon the original PI, Regina Klein, bawls him out in bleep-worthy terms for horning in on her case, but they form a temporary alliance to solve a complicated plot that's rife with peril. It looks like someone is running a real estate scam on an isolated location on the Lost Coast called Swann's Flat. A narrow and dangerous road twists and turns to the destination, and Clay sideswipes a teenage cyclist on a hairpin turn. The girl, Shasta, doesn't blame Clay for her minor injuries, and she becomes a key in a story that's peppered with vivid descriptions: Clay sees "the Pacific Coast baring its teeth. It was a crude, ax-hewn land, bunched like the front end of a head-on collision." And Regina is one of an abundance of well-drawn, entertaining characters: She has a gift for acting and easily switches from garbage-mouth to sweetness and light as the situation calls for. As a pretend married couple, they go to Swann's Flat and let a B.S. artist named Beau try to sell them property in this "private residential community": "Find your heart on the Lost Coast!" Clay checks in frequently with his real wife, Amy, who's at home with their two kids. He even consults with her on how much risk he should take; they are a loving family apparently devoid of flaws. Meanwhile, a one-hit-wonder novelist can't be found, and another young man is missing. Years earlier, Shasta's dad had fallen into oblivion off a cliff so high you couldn't hear the thump at the bottom. Maybe it was an accident or maybe not. And maybe Pop won't be the cliff's last victim. Crisp, witty dialogue zips this well-paced story along so that when violence happens, it comes as a shock. Kellerman fans will love this one. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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Chapter 1 I'd been off the force and out on my own for a year when I got a call from Peter Franchette. We met in downtown Oakland, at the same sushi restaurant where I'd last left him on a rainy afternoon, sitting across from a sister he'd never met. I'd tracked her down for him--­a bit of extracurricular activity that was part of why I was off the force and out on my own. The summer sun was harsh as he stepped in from the street. "Sorry I'm late." "Not at all. You shaved your beard." "And you grew one." I'd grown my hair out, too. The extra length masked a scar running from temple to nape. "My wife likes me better this way," I said. We took a booth, put in our order, made conversation. Peter told me he'd kept in touch with his sister, closely at first. Then less so. "She has her life, I have mine." I nodded. "And you?" he asked. "Charlotte must be--­what. Four and a half?" "Good memory. We have a son now, too. Myles." I showed him my phone. "What a bruiser. Am I wrong, or does he look like you?" "Yeah, he's a clone." "Cute. So how's life as a private citizen treating you?" "Can't complain." "Thanks for meeting on short notice." "No problem," I said. "What can I do for you?" "This kid I mentor, Chris Villareal--­super-­bright guy. His company does interesting stuff with AI and traffic grids . . . Anyhow. He showed up to a recent meeting looking pretty distraught. His grandmother passed and named him executor of her estate. Without warning him." "Always a fun surprise." "From what I gather, there's not much in terms of dollars. It's just disorganized, and he's run across some things that don't feel right." "How so?" "You'd be better off hearing it from him." "Has he spoken to an estate attorney?" "I set him up with my person. She thinks it's not worth the trouble, Chris should drop it." "Sounds like good advice." "I think it's a matter of principle. He and his grandma were very close. The lawyer was the one who suggested a private investigator. She had a name but I thought of you." "Appreciate it." The server approached with our food. I split a pair of chopsticks and sanded them together. "Have him call me." "Great." Toward the end of the meal, he said, "You know, you never cashed my check." The check in question was made out to my daughter for $250,000--­a reward for my efforts. At the time I was still a county employee, sticking to the rules. Most of them. Crazy money for the job. Peter's venture capital success had earned him more than I could imagine, but mega-­rich isn't necessarily mega-­generous. "I tried to," I said. "The bank wouldn't accept it. They said it was too old." "When?" "Last year." "What'd you wait so long for?" "I didn't want to get fired." He shook his head. "What I get for using paper . . . Well, look," he said, digging out his phone, "at some point I decided you weren't going to deposit it. So I made an end run." He began tapping at the screen. For a moment I thought he might zap me the money electronically, a quarter of a million dollars in a quadrillionth of a second. Instead he turned the screen around as if to show off pictures of his own kids. I saw a banking app, with one account, labeled charlotte edison--­529 plan. "Technically it's in my name. I didn't know her Social. Happy to transfer it whenever you'd like. You can see for yourself, it's done pretty well." The balance was $321,238.77. "What do you think?" he said. "I think I should remind you," I said, "I have a son now, too." Excerpted from The Lost Coast: A Novel by Jonathan Kellerman, Jesse Kellerman All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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