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government project to research biological agents that could control human behavior, the hinky spiritual retreat Sparkling Waters, the dark web site DeepUnder, and the disappearances of at least four schoolchildren, two of whom have also turned up dead. Before he died, it seems, Felix Vodyanov was linked to a passenger ferry that sank in 1994, an even earlier U.S. But the hints of other crimes Tempe’s identification uncovers, particularly crimes against children, spur her on to redouble her efforts despite the new M.E.’s splenetic outbursts. Heavner isn’t exactly mollified when Tempe, aided by retired police detective Skinny Slidell and a host of experts, puts a name to the dead man.

Nettled by several errors in Heavner’s analysis, and even more by her willingness to share the gory details at a press conference, Tempe launches her own investigation, which is not so much off the books as against the books. Showboat Medical Examiner Margot Heavner makes it clear that, breaking with her department’s earlier practice ( The Bone Collection, 2016, etc.), she has no intention of calling in Tempe as a consultant and promptly identifies the faceless body herself as that of a young Asian man. Vera, once a fierce defender of children and women, is now a dementia patient in a nursing home, and Morris skillfully paints the loving, painful relationship between her and Ellice.Ĭorporate competition is not only racist and sexist, but deadly in this confident debut thriller.Īnother sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.Ī week after the night she chases but fails to catch a mysterious trespasser outside her town house, some unknown party texts Tempe four images of a corpse that looks as if it’s been chewed by wild hogs, because it has been. One of Ellice’s secrets is Vera Henderson, the woman who raised her and her brother, Sam. She also provides a knowledgeable portrait of Atlanta’s complex social structure. Morris builds an escalating thriller plot packed with convincing details about corporate politics and skulduggery. At the same time, her own secrets are being revealed. The harder she looks into what really happened to Michael, the more she uncovers in the company that alarms her. But she feels distinctly unwelcome on the board despite the support of company CEO Nate Ashe, a somewhat dotty Southern gentleman. Houghton has been under pressure about its lack of employee diversity, and her hiring should improve their optics. Among its least expected effects: She’s promoted to his job as head of legal, which puts her on the board of a family-owned, almost entirely White corporation. Ellice had no delusions about being in love with Michael-it was a colleagues-with-benefits situation for a woman focused more on her career than her personal life-but his death blows up her entire life. When he summons her for an early-morning meeting and she arrives at his office to find him dead, an apparent suicide, she keeps that a secret, too, leaving his body to be discovered by someone else. She has secrets in the present, too, notably her long-term affair with Michael Sayles, who is married, White, and her boss in Houghton Transportation’s legal department. To rise, Ellice has carefully shaped her image-and left out certain pieces of her past, like her childhood in a small, grindingly poor Georgia town where some very bad things happened before she escaped via a scholarship to an elite boarding school. As a Black woman, she’s dealt with barriers other lawyers haven’t, especially in Atlanta, a city that, despite its vibrant and diverse present, hasn’t shed its racist history. Success hasn’t been easy for Ellice Littlejohn.

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A seat on the executive board should be a professional peak for a corporate lawyer.