The twenty-first book in the hugely popular Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus series from New York Times bestselling author Faye Kellerman

A call from the Homicide desk shatters LAPD lieutenant Peter Decker’s hopes of a peaceful evening. Residents in a local building have been complaining of a putrid smell coming from an apartment rented by Hobart Penny, an eccentric aging engineer who made millions from aerospace patents and inventions.

Well over 80, and a recluse for the last 25 years, it wasn’t surprising that the troubled genius might have died without anyone knowing. However, as Decker steps inside, it’s clear that this is a murder scene…

Who could have killed someone who lived a quarter of a century as a hermit? But there is no shortage of suspects. Penny’s children describe their father as a cruel and vicious man; while his second wife, twenty years his junior, knew a man with strange addictions and brutal tastes; and reports of frequent visits from prostitutes only add to the list of suspects.

A thorough search reveals further evidence of a disturbed, depraved man: human body parts.

So just who was Hobart Penny? A brilliant inventor, a sexual predator or a callous killer?