A Deeper Darkness

Thriller Award–winner Ellison (Where All the Dead Lie) introduces Dr. Samantha Owens, Tennessee’s head medical examiner, in this scintillating first in a new forensic series. Sam, still reeling from the loss of her husband and young children in a flood two years earlier, receives a desperate phone call from Eleanor Donovan, the mother of a boy she dated at medical school in Georgetown, security consultant Eddie Donovan. Eddie, a former Army Ranger who served in Afghanistan, was shot dead in an apparent carjacking, but Eleanor, convinced her son wasn’t a random victim, implores Sam to come to Washington, D.C., to conduct a second autopsy. Once in D.C., obsessive-compulsive Sam must face the demons of Eddie’s memory and his widow’s resentment. Meanwhile, other former members of Eddie’s Ranger unit start turning up dead. The suspenseful plot takes many a twist and turn before reaching its startling conclusion. Agent: Scott Miller, Trident Media. (May)