Aftershock
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
When an earthquake strikes San Francisco, forensics expert Jessie Teska faces her biggest threat yet in this explosive new mystery from the New York Times bestselling authors of Working Stiff.
At first glance, the death appears to be an accident. The body, located on a construction site, rests under a collapsed beam. But when Dr Jessie Teska arrives on the scene, she notices the telltale signs of a staged death. The victim has been murdered. A rising star in the San Francisco forensics world, Jessie is ready to unravel the case, help bring the murderer to justice and prevent them from potentially striking again.
But when a major earthquake hits San Francisco right before Halloween, Jessie and the rest of the city are left reeling. And even if she emerges from the rubble, there’s no guaranteeing she’ll make it out alive.
With Melinek and Mitchell’s trademark blend of propulsive prose, deft plotting and mordant humor, this electrifying new installment in the Jessie Teska Mystery series offers the highest stakes yet.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Melinek and Mitchell's so-so second mystery featuring San Francisco deputy chief medical examiner Jessie Teska (after 2020's First Cut) takes Teska to a construction site where a man's corpse has been found, his head crushed by a pile of pipes. Teska's preliminary observations lead her to suspect the scene was staged. After the pipes are lifted off the body, she notes the head's not surrounded by the large puddle of blood she'd expect to see if the crushing of the skull was the cause of death. At the autopsy of the victim, identified as Leopold Haring, "one of the most famous and acclaimed architects in the world," Teska discovers that a puncture wound from an unknown weapon was the actual cause of death. An earthquake and complications in Teska's romantic life add little as the lead predictably puts herself in jeopardy by investigating Haring's murder. A contrived denouement is another negative. The authors don't make Teska any sort of rival to Kathy Reichs's Temperance Brennan.
Customer Reviews
Nothing new to see here
3.5 stars
Author American forensic pathologist (Harvard, UCLA). Dr Melinek's husband and co-author, T J Mitchell, is a screen writer by trade. Her memoir Working Stiff (2014) described her experience as the NY Medical Examiners Office after the twin towers fell. She and hubby subsequently relocated to Oakland, CA, then to NZ in 2020 (presumably to escape COVID19). Her first novel First Cut (2020) introduced Jessie Teska, a young female medical examiner in San Francisco. This is what Jessie did next.
In brief
Our gal is half Polish (from Boston), and super keen about her job. This cruels her relationship with an Indian lawyer, although her dog still loves her. The action starts with a suspicious death on a building site (the world renowned architect who designed the place). Our gal's amateur sleuthing is interrupted by a 6.5 earthquake that buries a whole mess o' homeless people when a freeway ramp falls down, and results in her own head injury while she's trying to extract bodies. The architect's spouse and his business partner seem dodgy, and his 20-something son is a tad highly strung (in the bipolar sense). DNA samples are confusing. Our gal has a romp with an Irish air conditioning repairman who seems to be everywhere. Yada, yada. The end.
Writing
Clear, crisp prose that gets the job done with a minimum of fuss, a tolerable suspension of disbelief, and a hint of humour. No great surprise as to whodunnit. Character development limited to the protagonist that undoubtedly builds on Book #1, which I haven't read.
Bottom line
The trope of the feisty female forensic pathologist/medical examiner turned sleuth is familiar one thanks to Karin Slaughter and Kathy Reichs, among others. Dr Melinek brings little new to the table, but executes reasonably well. (Poor choice of words).