Coyote Hills : a novel / Jonathan Kellerman and Jesse Kellerman.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The electric new Clay Edison thriller from the New York Times bestselling, acclaimed father-son duo who write "brilliant, page-turning fiction" (Stephen King)

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 drugs in his system and a head injury. 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.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Booklist Review

In the sixth Clay Edison mystery (after The Lost Coast, 2024), the former Alameda County coroner (he's a private investigator now) takes on a difficult case. The previous summer, the son of a wealthy couple disappeared; later, his body was found, and an autopsy found signs of recreational drug use and a mysterious head injury. The police seem content to write it off as an accidental death, but his parents are convinced their son was murdered. They are determined to get answers, and they're not about to be patient about it. They want Clay to uncover the truth and to do it quickly. The Edison series, which launched with 2017's Crime Scene, keeps getting better. Clay is a very interesting character (he frequently draws on his expertise as a coroner when he's working a case), a likable guy who doesn't put up with any nonsense. One of his most important skills is his ability to think on his feet, to improvise when a case takes an unexpected turn, and he has to do a lot of that in this book, because it turns out this is no straightforward investigation into an unexplained death. An excellent entry in this popular series.

Kirkus Book Review

A floater in San Francisco Bay keys up a tough case in this fifth Clay Edison thriller. Adam Valois, 33, floated ashore a year ago at Coyote Hills, a park on the edge of the Bay. Not a homicide, say the coroner and police, but Adam's parents are suspicious and hire PI partners Clay Edison and Regina Klein to investigate further. You're wasting your time, the cops tell Clay, himself an ex-coroner. Officially, Adam wasn't a homicide victim at all, but a drug user deemed responsible for his own death. But other bodies wash up, and the PIs look for common drug profiles. They even enlist a scientist to write a computer program to analyze the Bay's complex tidal currents and try to find a common dumping ground for the bodies, if one exists. And it turns out they are homicides after all. There'd been bad blood between the troubled Adam and his successful attorney sister, Kirsten, and she becomes one of several suspects. On a par with the solid plot are some of the character relationships. Regina has a sharp tongue and loves to tease Clay, calling him Poirot. She both admires and challenges him. There's no obvious sexual chemistry between them; she has another man in her life, and Clay is happily married with two kids who love "Auntie Regina." Even his brother, Luke, who'd once done time for vehicular homicide, seems to be getting his act together. So Clay lives his life on two levels--other people's troubles and his own happy family. He and Regina uncover computer messages that cause Regina to exclaim "Sweet baby Moses on a motorbike," but then Luke visits Clay and teaches his kids how to become pancake ninjas. Like their PI partners, Jonathan Kellerman and his son Jesse make a great team. Dead bodies and pancakes--who could ask for anything more? Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.