I have read all of Jonathan Kellerman’s books and loved them all. I have read a couple of Jesse Kellerman’s books, but only found them so-so. These are not nearly as good as Jonathan Kellerman’s books. Since both are listed as the authors of this book, I wondered how much each of them had written. After reading the book, I can say that, in my opinion, the book has a lot to offer, but is not nearly as good as the books of Jonathan Kellerman. In this story, Deputy Sheriff Clay Edison of the Coroner's office becomes involved in a seemingly accidental death of a man falling down stairs in the Berkley area. Against his better judgement, Clay, who feels that something is just not right in this case, begins investigating the life and death of this man. His investigation takes him through many days and weeks of twists and turns as he ferrets out how this man’s life went and the many interactions and events that consumed it. In the end Clay finds that things are not always what they seem to be, and miscarriages of justice occur that impact on lives in a myriad of ways.

The main character, Clay Edison, comes across as a mixed bag to me. In one respect, he is a careful, conscientious investigator. In another, he is slanted toward a pretty girl, the daughter of the dead man, who seems to be the force behind his continued investigation. I wonder what would have happened if the daughter was a son or not as pretty? He also is not one to follow authority well, as he is warned/told to put the case to bed but doesn’t. In that respect, he is conscientious and, because of this, manages to right the wrong and help the victim wrongly accused of a heinous crime regain some semblance of his life and reputation. The crew who work with Clay at the coroner’s office came across as nice. The authors tried to impart a sense of solid camaraderie in the office, though that never did take hold very strongly or steadily. In addition, there were times I loved Clay, but other times I found the character very unlikable. Not sure, after reading the book, where I settled. This is the start of a new series, I think. Possibly reading another book about Clay and his life and job would give me a better idea of how I feel. I thought it was interesting the way the authors inserted a cameo appearance of Alex Delaware from Jonathan Kellerman’s series. However, in defense of Alex, I did not particularly like the picture of Alex they presented, as condescending, arrogant and unwilling to really want to help Clay, as how I have come to know Alex from his series. I think they did him an injustice. This is a good book, but, as I said, not as good as the Kellerman Alex Delaware series books. I am willing to give the authors another chance, however, as I saw a lot of promise. I received this from NetGalley to read and review.

Police procedural novel with a coroner's deputy as the main character who succumbs to the wishes of a daughter to investigate her father's death long past when it has been declared an accident. . Father and son authors, Jonathan and Jesse Kellerman have created a fast-paced character driven novel that I read through in one day. Jonathan Kellerman fans will be happy to know that Alex Delaware makes a cameo appearance. Highly recommended.

Good story and plot lines. Moved a bit slowly but overall a good book.

Great new series from father and son team Jonathan and Jesse Kellerman!
There are 5 manners of death. It’s up to the investigators in the Coroner's office to determine what category they each fall into.
Deputy Sheriff Clay Edison of the Coroner's office is called to a home in the Berkeley area to investigate a seemingly accidental death. A body at the bottom of the stair case. Simple enough - people trip and fall down the stairs all the time, right? Well, the dead mans’ daughter Tatiana is on the scene and is positive he was murdered. She’s doing her best to convince the investigators to see it her way. Against his better judgement, Clay begrudgingly probes deeper than he feels is necessary, only to find that there may in fact be more to this death than just an accidental fall.
I've been a huge fan of Jonathan and Faye Kellerman for years reading their separate series and combined efforts. I haven’t read anything from their son Jesse, though I’ve been meaning to. I’m not sure of the contribution of each author to this book but I can definitely feel the flavor of Jonathan Kellerman. His main characters, Alex Delaware and long-time girlfriend Robin make a cameo appearance in this book too! Bonus!
The main character Clay is strong and very likeable. We are given a good deal of insight into his background and character, flaws and all! This book reads very easily and quickly. I enjoyed every page, beginning to end. My only issue was there were so many characters, at times I had difficulty keeping them straight.
The foundations seem set for this to be a new and potentially long successful series. Fingers crossed! I am definitely a fan of this new series and will be watching and waiting for the next installment. Highly recommend!

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine, Jonathan and Jesse Kellerman for an ARC to review.

To be posted on Goodreads under Kaceey July 2-4, 2017.

Thank you netgalley. I enjoyed the characters and most of the story, but near the end I got confused. I'm not sure if I just didn't get what was happening or if I missed something. I went back to reread part of the story, but it just left me neutral to the book.

Jonathan Kellerman can not write a bad book. I am a huge fan of Jesse as well but when you put the two of them together it is pure magic! I have absorbed each one of their books and have never been disappointed. Crime Scene is no exception except....IT IS THE BEST YET!! I could not believe how this book ended. Page after page was full of surprises. Thank you so much for the opportunity to read and review this masterpiece.

A father/son Kellerman team, Crime Scene is the first featuring Clay Edison, a deputy sheriff with the Coroner's Bureau.

The death of a retired psychology professor, appears to be the result of an accidental fall down the stairs, but his daughter insists that it is murder, that her father was pushed down the stairs even though there was no indication, Clay feels an attraction to Tatiana, and slowly becomes interested in her father's backstory and the study of the effect of violent video games on adolescents that went so terribly wrong that left him guilt-ridden.

Well-written and well-plotted--an excellent introduction to a new character and a new series.

I will have to read more by Jesse.

Clay Edison is a death investigator whose job is to determine the manner of death. His latest case appears to be accidental, but Clay is reluctant to close it. The case has ties to the death of a co-ed years ago. A young man was convicted, but the more Clay finds out the more he wonders if the right man was found guilty of the crime.

This is the first book in a new series written by Kellerman and his son. The plot is good and the characters are interesting, but the ending is predictable. Dr Alex Delaware makes a brief appearance in the book. Thank you to net galley for an advanced readers copy.

Usual I love all the books by the Kellerman family. I hat trouble finding any of the main characters interesting and basically could not get involved in the plot. At one point I felt Clay was bored with his work and wanted to get more involved with living people. It must be hard spend so much of ones time working on cases when the person has just died.

Gosh that Jonathan Kellerman fella sure can write. I can tell from all of the awards he has won over the years. Seriously now, wife Faye Kellerman is also an outstanding writer, so son Jesse has some serious writing chops in his background. Jonathan and Jesse have teamed up to write the first in a series featuring Clay Edison, a deputy assigned as a death investigator with the Coroner's bureau of Alameda County in California.
Edison's job is strictly to help determine the manner of death whether it be homicide, suicide, accidental, natural causes or undetermined. He investigates the scene of the death looking for information that would aid in the determination. Is there a shoe untied on the body near a flight of stairs? Is there a knife sticking out of the body? It is not Edison's job to figure out the who or the why, just the how.
But in the recent death of Dr Walter Rennart he is drawn into a deeper investigation by the doctor's beautiful daughter Tatiania who insists her father was murdered despite everything pointing to a natural death. It is an earlier murder of a young coed that Dr Rennart lost his reputation over that soon piques Edison's interest.
There is a special delight in getting in on the ground of a new series, especially one that seem like it will go places. Clay Edison is a thoughtful character who has much room to grow in the following books.
I've always read Jonathan Kellerman. He writes a hell of a story. Problem is, I'm not overly fond of elitist Dr. Delaware. So I am hoping I continue to like Clay Edison as much as I do in this book.
I'm not sure if this makes much sense but I really liked the plot, it was very well -written, however the whodunnit was way too easy to figure out. I didn't feel challenged at all.
I mentally took half star off for using the word spectating. Why did spectate/spectating as a verb suddenly start showing up? What's wrong with watch? Maybe Edison was just using it ironically.
This is a great start to a new series. Oh heck, I just realized the drawback of a new series, waiting another year for the next installment.
Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I'm a big fan of Jonathan Kellerman so I was delighted to receive this book through NetGalley. As usual, the authors did not disappoint, the storyline is complicated but not so much that you lose track of the plot or the characters. I found myself making excuses to get more time to sit and read Crime Scene. I don't think you will be sorry to have invested the time in reading this crime story!

I absolutely love this author's books and Crime Scene was no exception. Good plot with many twists and turns. I highly recommend this book.

Death is inevitable, but just merely seeing a dead body might lead different people to different conclusions as to the exact cause of death. Sometimes you must dig a little deeper, even when the cause of death seems obvious: perform an autopsy, ask the difficult questions, probe the background a little. Clay Edison is a Deputy Coroner. His job is to determine if someone dies of natural causes or if they have met foul play. Usually his job ends there, but there is something about this current case, and those involved in it, that Clay cannot let go. He takes his job one step further and soon finds himself in very dangerous territory. The interesting part is that Clay is also a peace officer employed by the sheriff's office. This gives him more liberty to investigate cases if need be, although doing that is not at all part of his job description.

This book has a complex, multi-layered plot that keeps the action flowing at a good pace. The investigation has many pieces that Clay works diligently to put together. He relies on acquaintances in the police department and sources he discovers along the way. However, he meets many roadblocks and twists in the case that force him to step up his game. The underlying suspense builds slowly, but it never quite reaches a boiling point; instead it just simmers throughout. Overall this is very enjoyable novel with a masterfully crafted plot.

I would recommend this book to fans of mysteries and suspense, and I eagerly anticipate the next installment in this promising new series. I received this as a free ARC from Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Nicely put together story of a persistent young deputy sheriff and his investigation of an undetermined death even though it looked like a heart attack..

I've never been let down by this author. Fast paced and couldn't put it down.

If the name Kellerman is on it, it's a pretty sure bet I'll like it. Over many years, I've devoured just about every book by Jonathan, his wife Faye, and their son Jesse. I've also learned, though, that collaborations don't always live up to their hype, and sometimes the first book in a series falls flat. But neither am I one to look a gift horse in the mouth: Pass up an opportunity to read an advance copy of anything written by favorite authors in exchange for an honest review? Just ain't gonna happen.

And honestly? I enjoyed it thoroughly. Perhaps most importantly, I really love the new character, Clay Edison, a deputy in the Coroner's Bureau (a bit of a twist on the standard-issue police detective). He comes with a few flaws - his brother is in jail, a serious knee injury put the kibosh on a possible superstar career in basketball, and he's got a shaky relationship with his parents. There's also no main squeeze, thus paving the way for him to be at the mercy of any gorgeous female character he meets. On the other side, while his degree in psychology doesn't put him anywhere near the big leagues, it does give him a leg up when it comes to reading people, whether they be co-workers (like his hypochondriac partner Zaragoza), victims or perpetrators.

As this one begins, reclusive former psychology professor Walter Rennert is found dead by his daughter Tatiana (cue in that gorgeous female character). It appears that daddy simply fell down the stairs, but Tatiana insists her father was murdered. She continues to believe that even after the evidence reveals that his history of drinking and a bad heart are to blame. Clay, of course, is intrigued with Tatiana and agrees to take a closer look, to the dismay of his superiors who want the case closed.

As he digs deeper, he learns that Rennert resigned in disgrace when a coed was murdered by a mentally unstable participant in one of the professor's experiments. A few other clues throw more suspicion on the circumstances surrounding Rennert's death; and the deeper Clay digs, the more he wants to know about that experiment and precisely what went wrong. That, in turn, means Clay must call on one of Kellerman Senior's best-known characters, Dr. Alex Delaware, for help. The psychologist and LAPD consultant, it seems, had offered expert testimony at the trial of the young man who confessed to the coed's murder, who has since been released from jail.

As an aside, Dr. Delaware has long been on my Top 10 list of favorite male characters, so I was happy to see him show up here. But I must say I thought he came across a bit snarky during his meeting with Clay, even allowing for the constraints of doctor-patient privilege. Then again, maybe it was just me; as I was reading that part, I realized I'd been so engrossed that I'd kept reading more than an hour past my usual dinnertime.

In the end, as I said at the beginning, this is a very well written book with interesting, well-developed characters (especially Clay). Already, I'm looking forward to his next appearance.

How far would you go to discover the truth? Would you risk losing the security of your job? Your friends? Your sanity?

Clay Edison, former start basketball player, now Deputy for the coroner’s office, is convinced the death of Walter Rennert is natural – the man had high blood pressure, he drank to excess, and didn’t take care of himself very well. But Rennert’s daughter is convinced he was murdered – although nothing at the scene or with the autopsy points to that.

Clay needs to close the case—officially. But…he just can’t. Something doesn’t add up and when he starts digging into Rennert’s past he discovers a twisted series of events and murder that he just can’t let go of.

Rennert’s daughter, Tatiana, is a confusing mix of a problem of another sort for Clay. Professional decorum dictates he shouldn’t get involved with her on a personal basis, but he does, complicating the situation even more. Tatiana, volatile, erratic, and a bit of a drinker herself, makes things uncomfortable for Clay on so many levels. ( I really didn’t like her one bit!)

When Clay finally discovers the truth about Rennert’s life and the events that lead to his death, he is instrumental in helping an innocent, tortured man clear up his own past, and in so doing, helps Clay deal with decisions he’d made in his own past that still affect him to this day.

Part mystery, part suspense, and part psychological drama, CRIME SCENE is a good book by father/son writing team Jonathan and Jesse Kellerman.

A collaboration by the father/son Kellerman team, Crime Scene is the first in a new series featuring Clay Edison, a deputy sheriff with the Coroner's Bureau.

The death of Walter Rennert, retired psychology professor, appears to be the result of an accidental fall down the stairs, but his daughter Tatiana insists that it is murder, that the elderly man was pushed. Although there is no indication of anything more, Clay feels an attraction to Tatiana, and slowly becomes interested in Rennert's backstory and the study of the effect of violent video games on adolescents that went so terribly wrong that left him guilt-ridden.

Well-written and well-plotted--an excellent introduction to a new character and a new series.

Sometimes the division of labor in a collaboration is obvious, but Crime Scene is pretty seamless. Initially, I thought maybe Jonathan Kellerman would write the part of Alex Delaware, his well-known character, and that Jesse Kellerman would write the part of Clay Edison. But no, Alex Delaware gets a mention (with some playful pokes), but does not take a role in this novel, and the writing is smooth and consistent--whole cloth, not patchwork.

Although I've read Jonathan Kellerman's Alex Delaware series for years, this the first book I've read in which father and son collaborate, and I've never read anything by Jesse Kellerman. I need to rectify that situation.

Read in June; blog post scheduled for July 17

NetGalley/Random House/Ballentine

Crime/Suspense. Aug. 1, 2017. Print length: 400 pages.

Thanks to Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine Books and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed Crime Scene very much. I've read all of Jonathan Kellerman's books, and this collaboration with his son Jesse introduces a new character, Clay Edison. Clay is a deputy sheriff in the Coroner's Bureau in the Oakland area of California. He is called to a death of an old man named Walter Rennert, a former UC Berkeley professor, who apparently has fallen down the stairs. Clay's job is to determine the cause of death, which he thinks is accidental. His daughter Tatiana disagrees and thinks he's been murdered.

Clay starts digging and finds that Walter was involved in a study that looked at violent video games and their effect on kids. One of Walter's assistants is dead, and a student in the study was convicted of his murder. Clay feels that some of the details don't make sense, so he starts digging into old case files. What he finds leads him on quite a journey through the past, and to a startling conclusion.

As in all of Kellerman's books, the plot is well thought out and interesting and the book is extremely well written. He keeps your attention through the twists and turns of the case, and makes you invested in the outcome. He's clearly done his research and the details are impeccable. The characters are interesting and are all flawed in some way, which makes them more real and more believable. The sense of place is great as well and the descriptions make you feel like you're right there.

I like this new character and really enjoyed this book. I predict it will another bestseller for the Kellerman family, and I highly recommend it.

4 stars

Clay Edison is a deputy sheriff and death investigator who responds to the call at a home. An elderly man named Walter Rennert has apparently fallen down some stairs and lies dead at the foot. Accident, natural causes, murder or ?

Rennert was a retired psychology professor who also carried out studies involving students. When a tragedy ended his career at the university, he retired into near seclusion.

The autopsy shows that he died of a ruptured aorta, but the man’s daughter insists that he was murdered. No she doesn’t have any idea who, how or why. Clay begins to idly look into the matter before he declares it an accidental death and finds some interesting inconsistencies. But far more interesting is the daughter named Tatiana with whom Clay starts a relationship.

Tatiana is a grade A b***ch. She’s mercurial, shallow, inconsistent in her behavior and flighty.

The more Clay digs into the case, the more it seems to have something to do with an older case. The case was the murder of a young Chinese woman by supposedly a young man who was in a study being supervised by Rennert. Connections beget more connections and Clay finds some interesting facts along the way.

This is a very well written and plotted novel. While it is not up to the standard of Jonathan Kellerman’s usual, it is still a good read. I have never read any of Jesse Kellerman’s novel, but I will go to Amazon and check them out. I’m sure that being the son of two very successful writers isn’t easy, although their other son Joe has been quite successful – and I’ve read and enjoyed him. And it includes a cameo by none other than Dr. Alex Delaware himself. The suspense builds slowly and steadily until the murderer is finally revealed. It is a good book and reads quickly.

I want to thank Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine/Ballantine Books for forwarding to me a copy of this fine book to read.