The Memory Series

“An engrossing mystery with a wonderfully unique sleuth [who] tackles the most mysterious setting of all: the Bermuda Triangle of human memory” (Barbara Seranella, author of the Munch Mancini Novels).   Eight years ago, Brenna Kennedy defended Carmen DellaVecchio. He was a loner, a freak, and accused of the brutal rape and near-murder of Pittsburgh cop Teresa Harnett. She lost the case and DellaVecchio was sent to prison.   But now, DNA evidence has cast doubt on DellaVecchio’s guilt, and he is freed while waiting for a new trial. Kennedy continues to believe he is an innocent man. But if DellaVecchio is not guilty, then a dangerous sociopath is still out there.   Kennedy’s boyfriend—the brilliant and compassionate psychologist Jim Christensen—has dedicated his career to studying the effects of memory loss, including victims of trauma. When Teresa Harnett asks him to help her remember the events of that terrible night, he reluctantly agrees—and soon all of them are caught in the web of a madman who will kill to stay free . . .   In this finalist for the Edgar and Barry Awards, Michael J. Smith delivers “the creepiest good time I’ve had in ages—a genuine page-turner” (Laura Lippman, New York Times–bestselling author of And When She Was Good).

The author of Straw Men continues his Memory Series with “a terrific read for lovers of political suspense” (Rebecca Forster, USA Today–bestselling author).   Two men stand out in a crowd overlooking the Ohio River. A plane is being removed from the water where it crashed decades before. Both men helped put it there.   Jim Christensen’s adopted daughter, Melissa, has been troubled of late. She has dreams that feel like memories, unsettling images percolate to the surface. She remembers a terrifying past, possibly her own, from a time before she was adopted. Christensen’s work as an expert in memory makes him the ideal person to help unlock his daughter’s fragile grasp on her own history. But will he want to learn the truth of where Melissa came from? Who she was before? Who might still be looking for her?   This dizzying novel of suspense takes the reader back into a dirty war and its human costs, into the fevered mind of one of its survivors, and through the crosshairs of a man desperate to keep his own history vanished.   Praise for the Memory Series novels “The creepiest good time I’ve had in ages—a genuine page-turner!” —Laura Lippman, New York Times bestselling author on Straw Men   “[Time Release] is a spellbindingly accomplished first novel.” —James Ellroy, national bestselling author of L.A. Confidential  

This chilling legal thriller that brings readers into the depths of human memory “hooks you . . . right through to the last page” (Michael Connelly, New York Times–bestselling author of The Black Box).   For generations the Underhill family has dominated Pennsylvania politics. Now, with their youngest son locked in a tight gubernatorial race, a simple accident threatens to derail the entire campaign.   Floss Underhill, the family’s elderly matriarch, has been discovered alive after falling from a gazebo into a ravine, and Brenna Kennedy gets brought in as a defense attorney for the family. The police don’t think her fall was an accident—and soon neither does Kennedy.   Kennedy’s partner, psychologist and memory expert Jim Christensen, has been studying Floss Underhill for months in a group of Alzheimer’s patients. Her mind ravaged by the disease, her body broken by the fall, Floss Underhill nevertheless knows something, and is trying to tell Christensen a family secret so explosive it could bring down an empire.   But to bring the truth out, Kennedy and Christensen will have to face some powerful enemies in this twisting mystery-thriller from an author who “may well become a thriller force to be reckoned with” (James Ellroy, New York Times–bestselling author of L.A. Confidential).