The Fallen

The New York Times bestseller from the three-time Edgar Award winner: Sometimes what it takes to catch a killer is a cop who thinks differently . . .

A good cop, Robbie Brownlaw was thrown from a sixth-floor window of a downtown hotel and miraculously survived. The traumatic incident left Robbie with a fast-track career in the San Diego P.D.'s Homicide division . . . and a rare neurological condition called synesthesia that jumbles his senses. It enables him to see people's emotional words as colored shapes—green trapezoids of envy, red squares of deception—something like a primitive lie detector.


Another good man lies dead in a blood-spattered Ford Explorer—an ex-cop-turned-ethics investigator whose private life was torn open by unthinkable tragedy. Whether Garrett Asplundh's death was suicide or murder isn't immediately apparent—but it's soon clear to Robbie and his smart, tough partner that Garrett had hard evidence of sex, scandal, and corruption spreading deep into local government. But pursuing the truth could prove more emotionally devastating than Robbie ever imagined.


"The suspense is palpable as Brownlaw and his partner, McKenzie Cortez, work to identify Asplundh's killer, but the novel probes deeper mysteries, such as the victim's tragic life and Brownlaw's disintegrating marriage. With his trademark psychological acuity and empathy, Parker creates a world of fully realized characters coping with obsession and loss." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)


"His dialogue crackles and pops . . . an intricate and well-paced tale set in a city where shadowy characters lurk beneath sunny skies." —Booklist (starred review)


"Parker belongs in the first rank of American crime novelists." —The Washington Post