New Releases by Jonathan Kellerman

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The iconic thriller series that inspired the upcoming streaming show on Prime Video, in development now! Psychologist Alex Delaware and Detective Milo Sturgis, the most beloved duo in American crime fiction, return in this electric novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling “master of suspense” (Los Angeles Times). This one looked like a slam dunk: a young woman found dead at her kitchen table, DNA on cigarette butts linking quickly to an ex-boyfriend with a criminal record. Or so homicide lieutenant Milo Sturgis thought. Then everything changed and a quick close turned into a mind-bending whodunit. That’s when Milo called in psychologist Alex Delaware, his best friend and a long-term consultant on “those cases.” The ones that are different. Then there’s another one: an old woman found brutally murdered, her body stashed in a deep freeze and mutilated. And when Milo learns who she is, he’s stunned. This victim is someone he once knew. Complicating matters further, her home is an extreme hoarder’s den, virtually impassable due to years of stored trash and apparently meaningless objects. Except for the envelopes of cash stashed among the garbage. As Alex and Milo dig deeper into the seemingly unrelated crimes, they discover shocking links between the victims and realize they have a labyrinthine—and deadly—puzzle to solve. Cast against the unforgettable L.A. ambience unique to the novels of Jonathan Kellerman, this is classic Delaware at its best.

The riveting new Clay Edison thriller from the bestselling, acclaimed father-son duo who write “brilliant, page-turning fiction” (Stephen King) Cut loose from his former life at the coroner’s office, Clay Edison has set up shop as a private investigator. It’s steady, safe work. Until it isn’t. The trouble begins when a young man, tasked with managing his grandmother’s estate, hires Clay to examine some minor financial discrepancies. What starts off as a case of simple fraud rapidly explodes into a web of deception, an elaborate con game stretching back decades and involving countless victims. All the evidence points to a tiny town on California’s rugged, remote Lost Coast. Good luck getting there, though. And Clay’s reward for surviving the journey is a trigger-happy welcoming committee, ready to guard their secrets with lethal force. Navigating this landscape of savage waves and savage lies brings Clay into collision with a host of other players: a grieving mother, an enigmatic teenager, a reclusive military veteran, a foul-mouthed PI pursuing her own agenda. And the price of truth will turn out to be higher—and deadlier—than Clay could have imagined. From the minds of Jonathan and Jesse Kellerman comes a heart-stopping tale of deception and redemption—bursting with action, suspense, and unforgettable characters.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Psychologist Alex Delaware and Detective Milo Sturgis confront a baffling, vicious double homicide that leads them to long-buried secrets worth killing for in the riveting thriller from the #1 New York Times bestselling “master of suspense” (Los Angeles Times). LAPD homicide lieutenant Milo Sturgis sees it all the time: Reinvention’s a way of life in a city fueled by fantasy. But try as you might to erase the person you once were, there are those who will never forget the past . . . and who can still find you. A pool boy enters a secluded Bel Air property and discovers two bodies floating in the bright blue water: Gio Aggiunta, the playboy heir to an Italian shoe empire, and a gorgeous, even wealthier neighbor named Meagin March. A married neighbor. An illicit affair stoking rage is a perfect motive. But a “double” in this neighborhood of gated estates isn’t something you see every day. The house is untouched. No forced entry, no forensic evidence. The case has “that feeling,” and when that happens, Milo turns to his friend, the brilliant psychologist Alex Delaware. As Milo and Alex investigate both victims, they discover two troubled pasts. And as they dig deeper, Meagin March’s very identity begins to blur. Who was this glamorous but conflicted woman? Did her past catch up to her? Or did Gio’s family connections create a threat spanning two continents? Chasing down the answers leads Alex and Milo on an exploration of L.A.’s darkest side as they contend with one of the most shocking cases of their careers and learn that that some secrets are best left buried in the past.

Things get personal for Deputy Coroner Clay Edison when a murder hits close to home in this riveting, emotional thriller from the bestselling father-son team who write “brilliant, page-turning fiction” (Stephen King). A raging wildfire. A massive blackout. A wealthy man shot to death in his palatial hilltop home. For Clay Edison, it’s all in a day’s work. As a deputy coroner, caring for the dead, he speaks for those who cannot speak for themselves. He prides himself on an unflinching commitment to the truth. Even when it gets him into trouble. Then, while working the murder scene, Clay is horrified to discover a link to his brother, Luke. Horrified. But not surprised. Luke is fresh out of prison and struggling to stay on the straight and narrow. And now he’s gone AWOL. The race is on for Clay to find him before anyone else can. Confronted with Luke’s legacy of violence, Clay is forced to reckon with his own suspicions, resentments, and loyalties. Is his brother a killer? Or could he be the victim in all of this, too? This is Jonathan and Jesse Kellerman at their most affecting and page-turning—a harrowing collision of family, revenge, and murder.

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of the acclaimed Alex Delaware novels and the award-winning #1 international bestselling author of The Genius combine their extraordinary talents for one of the most unusual—and unnerving—thrillers of the year. Detective Jacob Lev has awakened dazed and confused: it appears he picked up a woman the night before, but can’t remember anything about it. And then suddenly, she’s gone. Not long after, he’s dispatched to a murder scene in a house in the Hollywood hills. There is no body, only a head. And seared into a kitchen counter is a message: the Hebrew word for justice. Lev is about to embark on an odyssey—through Los Angeles, London, and Prague, through the labyrinthine mysteries of a grotesque ancient legend, and most of all, through himself. All that he has believed to be true will be upended. And not only his world, but the world itself, will be changed.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Jonathan Kellerman returns with this stunning thriller—a mesmerizing L.A. noir portrayal of the darkest impulses of human nature carried to shocking extremes. The City of Angels has more than its share of psychopaths, and no one recognizes that more acutely than the brilliant psychologist and police consultant Dr. Alex Delaware. Despite that, Constance Sykes, a sophisticated, successful physician, hardly seems like someone Alex needs to fear. Then, at the behest of the court, he becomes embroiled in a bizarre child custody dispute initiated by Connie against her sister and begins to realize that there is much about the siblings he has failed to comprehend. And when the court battle between the Sykes sisters erupts into cold, calculating murder and a rapidly growing number of victims, Alex knows he’s been snared in a toxic web of pathology. Nothing would please Alex more than to be free of the ugly spectacle known as Sykes v. Sykes. But then the little girl at the center of the vicious dispute disappears and Alex knows he must work with longtime friend Detective Milo Sturgis, braving an obstacle course of Hollywood washouts, gangbangers, and self-serving jurists in order to save an innocent life. Killer is Kellerman—and Delaware—at their finest. Praise for Killer “Killer is well plotted and paced. . . . One of [Kellerman’s] best.”—Bookreporter “As usual, the rapport between Alex and Milo is a show-stealer, and longtime fans . . . will love the well-executed flashbacks to Alex’s professional past.”—Booklist “Kellerman kicks this one up to a whole new level.”—RT Book Reviews Praise for Jonathan Kellerman “Jonathan Kellerman has justly earned his reputation as a master of the psychological thriller.”—People “Kellerman really knows how to keep those pages turning.”—The New York Times Book Review

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER In an upscale L.A. neighborhood, a backyard renovation unearths an infant’s body, buried sixty years ago. Soon thereafter, in a nearby park, another disturbingly bizarre discovery is made not far from the body of a young woman shot in the head. Helping LAPD homicide detective Milo Sturgis to link these eerie incidents is brilliant psychologist Alex Delaware. But even the good doctor’s vast experience with matters both clinical and criminal might not be enough to cut down to the bone of this chilling case. Backtracking six decades into the past stirs up tales of a beautiful nurse with a mystery lover, a handsome, wealthy doctor who seems too good to be true, and a hospital with a notorious reputation—all of them long gone, along with any records of a newborn, and destined for anonymity. But the specter of fame rears its head when the case unexpectedly twists in the direction of the highest echelons of celebrity privilege. Entering this sheltered world, Alex little imagines the macabre layer just below the surface—a decadent quagmire of unholy rituals and grisly sacrifice. Don’t miss the excerpt of Jonathan Kellerman’s Killer in the back of the book! Praise for Jonathan Kellerman and Guilt “A solid, poignant tale of violence against the innocent . . . cool, brisk and polished.”—The Washington Post “Action-packed . . . Kellerman proves he can keep readers entertained and engrossed in a story that keeps them on the edge of their seats to the final page.”—Wichita Falls Times Record News “Certainly one of [Kellerman’s] best offerings to date . . . Do not miss this one.”—Bookreporter “Jonathan Kellerman’s psychology skills and dark imagination are a potent literary mix.”—Los Angeles Times “The combination of Alex Delaware [and] Detective Milo Sturgis . . . makes for the most original whodunit duo since Watson and Holmes.”—Forbes “Jonathan Kellerman’s novels are an obsession; once started it is hard to quit.”—Orlando Sentinel “Kellerman doesn’t just write psychological thrillers—he owns the genre.”—Detroit Free Press

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Missing acting students Dylan and Michaela are found in the remote mountains of Malibu, battered and terrified after a harrowing ordeal at the hands of a sadistic abductor. But forensic evidence soon exposes the incident as a hoax, and the kids are charged as criminals themselves. “Kellerman shows why he is called the ‘master of the psychological thriller.’”—Orlando Sentinel After examining Michaela, psychologist Alex Delaware is certain that there’s more to this sordid psychodrama, and his instincts prove dead-on when she is savagely murdered. Casting their dragnet into the murkiest corners of L.A., Delaware and homicide cop Milo Sturgis unearth more questions than answers—and a host of eerily identical killings. What bizarre and brutal epidemic is infecting the city with terror, madness, and sudden, twisted death?

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Dr. Morton Hander practiced a strange brand of psychiatry. Among his specialties were fraud, extortion, and sexual manipulation. Hander paid for his sins when he was brutally murdered in his luxurious Pacific Palisades apartment. The police have no leads, but they do have one possible witness: seven-year-old Melody Quinn. “An engrossing thriller . . . This knockout of an entertainment is the kind of book which establishes a career in one stroke.”—Newsday It’s psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware’s job to try to unlock the terrible secret buried in Meldoy’s memory. But as the sinister shadows in the girl’s mind begin to take shape, Alex discovers that the mystery touches a shocking incident in his own past. And behind it lies an unspeakable evil that Alex Delaware must expose before it claims another innocent victim.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The daughter of a diplomat disappears on a school field trip—lured into the Santa Monica Mountains and killed in cold blood. Her father denies the possibility of a political motive. There are no signs of struggle and no evidence of sexual assault, leaving psychologist Alex Delaware and his friend LAPD homicide detective Milo Sturgis to pose the essential question: Why? “Feverish in pace and rich in characters . . . a chilling and irresistible thriller.”—People Working with Daniel Sharavi, a brilliant Israeli police inspector, Delaware and Sturgis soon find themselves ensnared in one of the darkest, most menacing cases of their careers. And when death strikes again, it is Alex who must go undercover, alone, to expose an unthinkable conspiracy of self-righteous brutality and total contempt for human life.

It is a case unlike any psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware has ever encountered. Five-year-old Woody Swope is ill, but his parents refuse to agree to the one treatment that could save him. Alex sets out to convince Mr. and Mrs. Swope—only to find that the parents have left the hospital and taken their son with them. Worse, the sleazy motel where the Swopes were staying is empty—except for an ominous blood stain. They have vanished into the sordid shadows of the city. Now Alex and his friend, homicide detective Milo Sturgis, have no choice but to push the law to the breaking point. They are forced to enter an amoral underworld where drugs, dreams, and sex are all for sale and fantasies are fulfilled at any price—even at the cost of a young boy’s life. Praise for Blood Test “A suspenseful thriller whose solution lies in the darker recesses of the human soul.”—The Wall Street Journal “Gripping . . . peopled with vivid characters . . . pulsing with suspense.”—The San Diego Union-Tribune “Establishes Jonathan Kellerman as a master of suspense.”—The Charlotte Observer Don’t miss the excerpt of Jonathan Kellerman’s Guilt in the back of the book!

Psychologist-detective Dr. Alex Delaware finds terror in the heart of paradise in this relentlessly sinister novel by America''s premier writer of psychological suspense. Three months in paradise, all expenses paid. It''s an invitation Alex Delaware can''t refuse. Dr. Woodrow Wilson Moreland, a revered scientist and philanthropist on the tiny Pacific island of Aruk, has invited Alex to his home to help him organize his papers for publication--a light workload leaving Alex plenty of time to enjoy a romantic interlude with Robin Castagna. Quickly, however, secretive houseguests, frightening nocturnal visitors, and the elusive Dr. Moreland himself dim the pleasures of deep blue water and white sand. The cases Moreland chooses to share--a patient driven to madness by a cruel, unspeakable act; a man who succumbed forty years ago to radiation poisoning after a nuclear blast; a young woman, brutally murdered, whose mutilated body was found on the beach just six months before--seem unconnected. And yet Alex can''t help wondering what the good doctor is trying to tell him... and what Moreland''s real reason for inviting him to Aruk is. As Alex probes--with a little long-distance help from his friend LAPD detective Milo Sturgis--he comes to believe the answer lies hidden somewhere on Moreland''s vast estate. Yet when he finally discovers the truth, the revelation will be more shocking than he could have imagined. And it will come too late to stem the tide of violence that threatens guilty and innocent alike on the lovely lost island of Aruk. With his brilliant characterizations and rapid-fire pace, Jonathan Kellerman has redefined the boundaries of suspense, probing real-life horrors and innermost fears in a novel that transfixes from first page to last.

BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Jonathan Kellerman''s Victims. The closing of the grand old Fauborg Hotel in Beverly Hills is a sad occasion for longtime patrons Alex Delaware and Robin Castagna, who go there one last time for cocktails. But even more poignant—and curious—is a striking young woman in elegant attire and dark glasses, alone there and waiting in vain. Two days later, police detective Milo Sturgis comes seeking his psychologist comrade’s insights about a grisly homicide. To Alex’s shock, the brutalized victim is the same beautiful woman whose lonely hours sipping champagne at the Fauborg may have been her last. But when a sordid revelation finally cracks the case open, the secrets that spill out could make Alex and Milo’s best efforts to close this crime not just impossible but fatal.

BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Jonathan Kellerman's Victims. In a half-built mansion in Los Angeles, a watchman stumbles onto the bodies of a young couple—murdered and left in a gruesome postmortem embrace. Veteran homicide cop Milo Sturgis is shocked at the sight: a twisted crime that only Milo and psychologist Alex Delaware can hope to solve. While the female victim’s identity remains in question, her companion is ID’d as eco-friendly architect Desmond Backer, notorious for his power to seduce women. The deeper Milo and Alex dig for clues, the longer the list of suspects grows. But when the investigation veers suddenly in a startling direction, it’s the investigators who may wind up on the wrong end of a cornered predator’s final fury.

Lucy Lowell is traumatised after serving jury duty on the trial of a depraved killer. Horrific images haunt her waking life and at night she's terrorised by the recurring nightmare of a small child watching a terrible scene unfold in a darken wood. Lucy's terrified that she's losing her grip on reality. Her psychologist, Alex Delaware, thinks her dreams are repressed memories of something very real - a very real murder. Alex knows that delving into Lucy's mind might awaken past terrors but nothing could have prepared him for the horrors about to be unleashed.

Alex Delaware is back! And in Jonathan Kellerman's riveting and ingenious new novel, Monster, he faces one of the most grisly and baffling mysteries of his career: How can a nonfunctional psychotic locked up in a supposedly secure institution for homicidal madmen predict brutal murders in the outside world? Delaware and his friend and partner Detective Milo Sturgis must penetrate this enigma in order to stop the horrific killings. A marginal actor is found dead in a car trunk, sawn in half. Months later, a psychologist at a hospital for the criminally insane is discovered murdered and mutilated in a tantalizingly similar way. When reports of an inmate's incoherent ramblings begin to make frightening sense as predictions of yet more slayings, Delaware and Sturgis are drawn into a web of family secrets, vengeance, and manipulation--both inside the asylum and on the streets of L.A., where death, drugs, and sex are marketed as commodities. The climactic discovery they make as they race to prevent more killings gives fresh and terrifying meaning to the concept of monstrosity. With Monster's incomparably deft characterizations and dazzlingly dark plot twists, Jonathan Kellerman further enhances his literary position as master of the psychological thriller.

An unseen evil lurks in shadows... Love turns murderous in Bad Love, the gripping novel from No. 1 internationally bestselling author Jonathan Kellerman. Perfect for those who love Harlan Coben and Patricia Cornwell. 'Kellerman really knows how to keep those pages turning' - New York Times Book Review It starts with a tape delivered to psychologist Alex Delaware's house - a recording of a soul-sickening scream followed by a twisted, childlike voice chanting 'Bad love. Bad love. Don't give me the bad love...' Alex heard that phrase a decade ago, at a symposium for Dr Andres de Bosch and his work with troubled teens, why is he hearing it now? Then there are strange phone calls, a horrific act of vandalism and the discovery that other symposium delegates have been murdered. Unless Alex can make sense of the mind games being played he will be next... What readers are saying about Bad Love: 'Gripping from start to finish' 'Thrilling, absorbing and intelligent' 'Five stars'

The anonymous caller has an ominous tone and an unnerving message about something "real dead . . . buried in your marsh." The eco-volunteer on the other end of the phone thinks it''s a prank, but when a young woman''s body turns up in L.A.''s Bird Marsh preserve no one''s laughing. And when the bones of more victims surface, homicide detective Milo Sturgis realizes the city''s under siege to an insidious killer. Milo''s first move: calling in psychologist Alex Delaware.The murdered women are prostitutes-except the most recent victim; a brilliant young musician from the East Coast, employed by a wealthy family to tutor a musical prodigy, Selena Bass seems out of place in the marsh''s grim tableau.Conveniently-perhaps ominously-Selena''s blueblood employers are nowhere to be found, and their estate'' s jittery caretaker raises hackles. But Milo''s instincts and Alex''s insight are too well-honed to settle for easy answers, even given the dark secrets in this troubled man''s past. Their investigation unearths disturbing layers-about victims, potential victims, and suspects alike-plunging even deeper into the murky marsh''s enigmatic depths.Bizarre details of the crimes suggest a devilish serial killer prowling L.A.''s gritty streets. But when a new murder deviates from the pattern, derailing a possible profile, Alex and Milo must look beyond the suspicion of madness and consider an even more sinister mind at work. Answers don''t come easy, but the darkest of drives and desires may fuel the most devious of foes. --

A tipsy young woman seeking aid on a desolate highway disappears into the inky black night. A retired schoolteacher is stabbed to death in broad daylight. Two women are butchered after closing time in a small-town beauty parlor. The curious fact that all their killers drove luxury vehicles, coupled with a baffling lack of any apparent motive, is enough to warrant the attention of LAPD detective Milo Sturgis and his frequent collaborator on the crime beat, psychologist Alex Delaware.

#1 WASHINGTON POST BESTSELLER • “Jonathan Kellerman’s novels are an obsession; once started it is hard to quit.”—Orlando Sentinel Tanya Bigelow was a solemn little girl when Dr. Alex Delaware successfully treated her obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Now, at nineteen, Tanya returns with a curious request: that Delaware investigate her aunt’s deathbed confession of murder. While Delaware doubts that Patty Bigelow was capable of such a horrific act, he agrees to look into the matter. Armed with only the vaguest details, Delaware and LAPD detective Milo Stugris retrace Patty’s and Tanya’s nomadic and increasingly puzzling life. Then a very real murder tears open a terrifying tunnel into the past, where secrets—and bodies—are buried. As the tension mounts, Delaware and Sturgis uncover a tangled history of desperation, vengeance, and death—a legacy of evil that refuses to die. Praise for Obsession “The characters are rich, the story’s well-plotted and you won’t stop reading.”—Boston Herald “Filled with Kellerman’s psychological insight and action-packed drama.”—Toronto Sun

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Troy Turner and Rand Duchay were barely teenagers when they murdered a younger child. While Troy died violently behind bars, the hulking, slow-witted Rand managed to survive his stretch. Now, at age twenty-one, he’s emerged a haunted, rootless man with a pressing need: to talk—once again—with psychologist Alex Delaware. But when Rand’s life comes to a brutal end, his words die with him. LAPD homicide detective Milo Sturgis suspects that either karma or revenge caught up with Rand, but Delaware’s suspicions run darker. As Delaware and Sturgis retrace their steps through a grisly murder case that devastated a community, they discover madness, suicide, and even uglier truths waiting to be unearthed. And the nearer they come to understanding an unspeakable crime, the more harrowingly close they get to unmasking a monster hiding in plain sight. BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Jonathan Kellerman''s Guilt.

For the first time ever, bestselling novelists Jonathan and Faye Kellermen team up to deliver the launch book in a thrilling new series of short crime novels. This book--printed as a reversible volume with two different covers--contains two stories featuring different detectives solving crimes in different cities. It’s a reader’s dream come true: a new series co-written by the royal couple of crime fiction—Jonathan and Faye Kellerman! Each book contains two novels jointly written by the duo, featuring different detectives solving crimes in different cities. “In the Land of the Giants” has Boston homicide detectives Michael MacCain and Doris Sylvestor investigating the suspicious death of a college basketball star. And in “Still Life,” the co-worker of a Santa Fe art gallery is murdered, forcing detectives Darryl Two Moons and Steve Katz to put aside holiday celebrations and set things right.

Kriminalroman.

Alex Delaware investigates the murder of a young couple, killed in their car on a lonely lover''s lane.

LAPD homicide detective tries to stop a vicious psychopath who's made cold-blood murder his chosen art form.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER In one of the most frightening and challenging cases of his career, Dr. Alex Delaware must confront a strange medical mystery involving a child. “Reads like wildfire . . . harrowing suspense.”—The New York Times Book Review Twenty-one-month-old Cassie Jones is the picture of health. Yet her parents rush her to the emergency room night after night with symptoms no doctor can explain. Cassie’s parents seem genuinely concerned. Her favorite nurse is a model of devotion. When Delaware is called in to investigate, instinct tells him that one of them could be a monster. Then a physician is brutally murdered. A shadowy death is revealed. And Alex and his friend, LAPD detective Milo Sturgis, have only hours to uncover the link between Cassie’s terrifying condition and these shocking, seemingly unrelated events. BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from Jonathan Kellerman's Guilt.

BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Jonathan Kellerman's Guilt. NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER At a party for a controversial Los Angeles sex therapist, Alex Delaware encounters a face from his own past—Sharon Ransom, an exquisite, alluring lover who left him abruptly more than a decade earlier. Sharon now hints that she desperately needs help, but Alex evades her. The next day she is dead, an apparent suicide. “A complex and haunting story of tangled personalities, deeply buried family secrets, and of violence lying thinly under the surface . . . hits the reader right between the eyes.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review Driven by guilt and sadness, Alex plunges into the maze of Sharon’s life—a journey that will take him through the pleasure palaces of California’s ultrarich, into the alleyways of the mind, where childhood terrors still hold sway.

BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Jonathan Kellerman''s Victims. Who killed the killer? In this brilliant and startling psychological thriller, Jonathan Kellerman, perennial bestselling author, gives a sharp and timely twist to homicide''s central question. Someone has murdered euthanasia champion Dr. Eldon Mate--a self-styled Dr. Death responsible for scores of assisted suicides. In a burst of bloody irony, the killer chooses to dispatch the doctor in the back of Mate''s own suicide van, hooking him up to the killing apparatus dubbed "the Humanitron"--and adding some butchering touches of his own. The case is assigned to veteran LAPD homicide detective Milo Sturgis, who turns, once again, to his friend Dr. Alex Delaware. But working this case raises a conflict of interest for Alex so profound that he can''t even discuss it with Milo. The tension that develops between cop and psychologist further complicates an already baffling and complex murder investigation--one whose suspects include the families of Dr. Mate''s "travelers," Mate''s own son, and a psychopathic killer who relishes the geometry of death. Dr. Death is a rich brew of unforgettable characters, labyrinthine plotting, page-turning prose, and the unique insights into the darkest corners of the human mind that have earned Jonathan Kellerman international accolades as the master of psychological suspense.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Dr. Alex Delaware doesn’t see many private patients anymore, but the young woman called Lucy is an exception. So is her dream. Lucy Lowell is referred to Alex by Los Angeles police detective Milo Sturgis. A juror at the agonizing trial of a serial killer, Lucy survived the trauma only to be tormented by a recurring nightmare: a young child in the forest at night, watching a strange and furtive act. “Exciting . . . loaded with tension and packed with titillating insights.”—The New York Times Book Review Now Lucy’s dream is starting to disrupt her waking life, and Alex is concerned. The power of the dream, its grip on Lucy’s emotions, suggests to him that it may be more than a nightmare. It may be the repressed childhood memory of something very real. Something like murder.

People are voluntarily dying before their time in California. Some call it assisted suicide, others, murder. The man at the centre of the row, nicknamed Doctor Death, continues to work, but Detective Milo Sturgis comes to Delaware with the suspicion that some patients are not willing collaborators.