Part of Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus, book 24
First published 2017
Rina Lazarus discovers skeletal remains buried beneath the forest floor during her September morning walk through the woods near her upstate New York home. She immediately contacts her husband Peter Decker, a former LAPD detective lieutenant now working with the local Greenbury Police. The crime scene reveals limited evidence: youthful bones, a skull fracture, and long dark hair strands. Decker and his partner Tyler McAdams suspect the victim was a student from the nearby Five Colleges consortium where Rina works. When additional bodies surface in the same location, the investigation expands into a serial murder case spanning decades. The understaffed police department relies on Rina to gather intelligence from campus sources as they navigate through academic suspects and college politics. The team races against time to identify a killer who remains active in their community and continues searching for new victims.
Genres: mystery, crime, thriller, detective
Vibes: dark, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: found-family, investigative-journalism
Setting: Greenbury, New York, Five Colleges
Period: Contemporary
415 pages · Hardcover · William Morrow
Content warnings: murder, violence