A Measure Of Darkness by Jonathan and Jesse Kellerman

 

When Deputy Coroner Clay Edison gets the late night call, he didn't expect what he found.  A huge block party had erupted into violence.  Opposing groups had opened fire and a panicked stampede had occurred.  There was a vehicle death on top of the gun deaths.  There was a six year old boy killed when a stray bullet came through the walls of the apartment he and his mother shared.  

All of this was bad and everyone turned out.  Clay was the last to leave and so he got the last body found.  It was found hours after the initial call and was the body of a young woman hidden in a shed at the back of the large property.  She didn't seem to have a gunshot wound; instead there was blunt force trauma and strangulation.  She was the victim of a murderous attack, probably by someone she knew.

Clay's job is to identify all the victims he is assigned, notify their next of kin and make sure all of the paperwork that accompanies a sudden death is correctly filled out and filed.  His job is not to investigate crimes but his curious nature and tenacity leaves him unable to leave things unexplained.  It takes weeks to identify the woman in the shed and when he does, he and a policewoman uncover credit card fraud of a massive nature the woman had been involved in.  Did this cause her death or did the answers lie even further back in her background?  

Readers will enjoy this father/son team of authors who combine talents to bring another Californian professional to life.  Clay is a former basketball star who lost his chance at a professional career when his knee was hurt.  He has fallen into the coroner's office by happenstance but enjoys the work and the occasional mystery he encounters.  He is dealing with the return of his black sheep brother into his family and with the intensifying of his relationship with his girlfriend.  All of this makes Clay as interesting as the mystery he solves.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.