This is the fifth book in this brilliant father-son collaboration. I make no secret of the fact that Jonathan Kellerman is one of my favourite, go to, authors and it is obviously through him that I discovered this series featuring ex-deputy coroner cum private eye Clay Edison. Now I loved him when he was in the coroner's department as I thought that was a neat quirk and something a little different, but now I am getting used to him transferring his pretty well stocked skill set into the private market and I'm liking what I see. So... we start with Clay being asked to help with tracing a cheque. Charles Villareal is the executor for his grandmother's estate and he has spotted a recurring payment which he can not identify. Clay pokes around a bit and discovers that it appears to be payment for a plot of land in Swann's Flat and the more he looks into it, the more dodgy and fraudulent it becomes. Soon his leads dry up and the only thing left is to actually go to the place and do some digging on site. En route though, he spots a "missing" board and hones in on one of the people displayed. But I'll park that here and let you discover quite how it all fits for yourself... And so begins a rather interesting, and perilous, twisty turny story that has Clay pitching his brains against some rather nasty brawn in his endeavours to get to the bottom of the payment. But little did he know what kind of can of worms he was going to open up... To be honest, I wasn't really that interesting in the real estate part of the book. That sort of mystery doesn't really do it for me, but the authors did a good job of keeping my attention and, intrigue, and I trusted that there would be something else to get my teeth into, and I was rewarded for that trust. Another big plus point was the inclusion of a partner for Clay in the latter half of the book. She was brilliant! A bit of light and occasionally comic relief which was most welcome. The other characters in this book are, well, you have to meet them, they are all a bit eclectic and well, weird. And occasionally misunderstood. I enjoyed getting to know them and then really getting to know them better! All in all, a cracking addition to a now already well established series. Let's try not wait three years for the next one please...