I just finished a great book. Coyote Hills by Johnathan and Jesse Kellerman is available this fall. Pick it up! You won’t regret it.

Second to Alex Delaware is Clay Edison! Another fast read delicately solved by Clay. Great characters and unsuspecting killers.

Coroner turned private detective Clay Edison and his partner Regina Klein are hired to investigate the death of the son of a wealthy, eccentric family. The young man died of drowning and his autopsy showed a cocktail of drugs in his body. Case closed for the police. Not so much for his parents. Clay’s interview and research leads him to agree with the parents but also convinces him that there are more victims and a murder case to solve.

You know that anything authored by a Kellerman is going to be a 5 star read. Coyote Hills combines murder, intrigue, investigation with snappy dialogue and sarcastic insights. The plot is complex and the characters are well described. Clay Edison is just as memorable ac Alex Delaware. 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Ballentine books and Jonathan and Jesse Kellerman for this ARC.

Clay Edison has left behind the Alameda County coroner’s office to strike out on his own as a private investigator. He’s perfectly happy working low-stakes embezzlement cases that is, until PI Regina Klein calls him with a mystery only he can solve. The son of a wealthy couple has washed up dead on the shores of San Francisco Bay with a head injury and drugs in his system. The police are calling it an accident. But the parents are adamant something's not right and as Clay digs deeper, he uncovers a horrifying tangle of betrayal and lies! This book definitely has you hooked right away! It had chilling suspense, Mystery, murder, intriguing, action, and a few crazy twists! The story was very interesting! I highly recommend reading this book! Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for sharing this book with me!

Clay Edison --coroner turned private investigator--likes to keep his cases simple rather than involved and dangerous. But this time, there's no turning back when Clay is drawn in by Regina to investigate the death of the son of a wealthy family. The family doesn't believe their son died accidentally--a drowning. Clay begins investigating and finds lies and deceit abound in this case. The authors do a great job bringing in advanced technology into the story. Tides, water levels etc add to the story. Clay turns to his acquaintances that are still on the police force to help solve the crime. Soon, there are multiple deaths and multiple lies. How do you find the truth, the murderer and closure for families that lost a member. Thanks to NetGalley for the arc.

You can never go wrong with Kellerman and I've enjoyed these cowritten stories. Clay and Regina are such good characters and this mystery has terrific twists and turns. Really great!

Private investigator Clay Edison is brought into a case by a longtime colleague, Regina Klein. She was contacted by a grieving family whose son's body was discovered in the remote flats of Coyote Hills an area that connects with the San Francisco Bay. The victim is found with a head wound and a mix of drugs in his system, a cocktail that pings something in Clay's memory and has the potential to lead to a much bigger crime.

Some books are like a palate cleanser; a warm bit of comfort that you can fall easily back into. Having read Jonathan Kellerman (writing here with son Jesse) the first time 30 years ago, and continued off and on since (for years his Alex Delaware books were my go to for plane rides), his novels are like comfort food to me. And I absolutely couldn't pass up that type of book, especially one whose title of Coyote Hills is located in my hometown.

I really liked the main character Clay and his partner-in-crime Regina and enjoyed their constant tit-for-tat, brick-a-brack ribbing and riffing (shades of Alex and Milo from the Delaware-verse). A solid, entertaining whodunnit mystery--4.25 stars.

I received this advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review.

Clay is pulled into another investigation he uses all of his contacts to try and find out the cause of death. He surveils other people he has uncovered who may or may not be able to help him with this case. How this book answers all of the questions is very interesting. Highly recommend you read it!

This is #6 in the Kellermans’ collaboration about former coroner turned private investigator Clay Edison. I’m an admitted Kellerman junkie (all of them!) and I noticed that my reviews of the previous Clay Edison thrillers tell me that I’m liking this character more and more as he develops his professional skills and sense of self-worth.

Clay is recruited by a fellow PI, Regina, to follow up on the year old drowning death of Adam Valois, 30-something son of a wealthy Bay Area couple, whose body washed up on the shore of the Coyote Hills Regional Park. The parents have already tried another investigator and the police deemed their son Adam’s death was undetermined and probably accidental, but what Clay brings to the reopened case is unique — his extensive coroner background and the memory of another unsolved drowning.

This is a police procedural, but the addition of intriguing geography and new tech give it a polished storyline. The Kellermans introduce us to the cool “The Bay Model” which charts tides in the area — an investigative tool that assists Clay to track where the drowned man might have entered the water. Another hoot is when Clay interrogates a virtual intimate chat bot, trying to get the “large language model” to give up her AI soul and some new clues. The outcome was unexpected and how Clay and Regina solved the puzzle was filled with revelations gained by their deft interviewing of suspects. 5 stars!

One quibble: there’s a Tesla up on a hydraulic lift at a Jiffy Lube — but Teslas don’t need oil changes.

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): NO Multiple colors but no green ones.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO It’s obvious the authors are very familiar with the locales where the action occurs, the Coyote Hills park in particular.

Thank you to Random House/Ballantine Books and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy!