The Lost Coast

In the father-son Kellerman team’s follow-up to The Burning, Clay Edison is now a licensed private investigator, giving him more freedom to operate than he had as a coroner’s investigator. When a former client refers Chris Villareal, who needs assistance with matters concerning his grandmother’s estate, Clay thinks that it should be an easy case. Chris has found some strange financial transactions in her papers. It seems that she has purchased land in Swan’s Flat, a remote rural area on California’s Lost Coast. When Clay goes to investigate, he finds that even the trip over roads that are nearly nonexistent is perilous. Once there, he has to pay a small fortune for a ratty room in a rundown inn. The few locals are less than welcoming, spying on him, shooting at him, and vandalizing his car. His wife and family, anxious since there is no cellphone reception, want him to come home, but Clay continues investigating. He discovers a web of fraud and deception that goes back several generations and works hard to help Chris while staying alive.