Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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 © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.