Aftershock: A Novel

by Judy Melinek, T.J. Mitchell

Overview

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 duo

There’s a body crushed under a load of pipes on a San Francisco construction site, and medical examiner Dr. Jessie Teska is on call. So it’s her job to figure out who it is—and her headache when the autopsy reveals that the death is a homicide staged as an accident.

Jessie is hot on the murderer’s trail, then an earthquake sends her and her whole city reeling. When the dust clears, her case has fallen apart and an innocent man is being framed. Jessie knows she’s the only one who can prove it, and she races to piece together the truth—before it gets buried and brings her down in the rubble.

With Melinek and Mitchell’s trademark blend of propulsive prose, deft plotting and mordant humor, this rollicking new installment in the Jessie Teska Mystery series will shake you up and leave you rattled.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781335147295
Publisher:	Hanover Square Press
Publication date:	01/19/2021
Series:	A Dr. Jessie Teska Mystery
Edition description:	Original
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	241,475
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.30(d)

Editorial Reviews

11/30/2020

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. Agent: Jessica Papin, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

Scalpel sharp. First Cut allows a peek into the autopsy room through the eyes of a pro.”—Kathy Reichs


“Who better to deliver a genuinely compelling mystery than real-life medical examiners? Fans of CSI and Forensic Files will devour this well plotted story.”—Karin Slaughter


"All the charm, gruesome detail and surprising empathy that made Working Stiff such a delight brought back in a novel. An impressive opener to a series that deserves to run and run."—Alex Marwood, author of The Wicked Girls and The Killer Next Door


“A strong series launch…While Jessie’s gutsy personality will endear her to readers, it’s the meticulous detail that distinguishes this novel…Fans of Patricia Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta will be pleased.”—Publishers Weekly


“The married authors…expertly employ their know-how, maintaining blood-and-guts vérité while empathetically exploring what it’s like to do a job with actual life-and-death stakes. First Cut is a fascinating, entertaining series kickoff, with a particularly kickass heroine.”—BookPage


“If you love a fast-paced story with a true crime feel to it, waste no time hunting down the debut novel First Cut.…The husband and wife writing team merges the insider expertise of a career medical examiner who has dealt with every detail of deaths from city morgues (Melinek) and a writer who understands how to work nuanced characters with distinctive personalities into a well-paced narrative with surprising twists and turns (Mitchell).”—Jersey’s Best

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