I chose this Kellerman title for review because of the title Half Moon Bay. My father often worked in Half Moon Bay in probation and taught Criminal Justice at Santa Clara University. We lived in RWC. While I was disappointed to not read more on local details, the real life everyday feel of Clay’s young family, his work as a Coroner who tries to help find the answers to a missing child held my attention. I would read more in this series.

This book was challenging to read. So many characters! I had a hard time keeping all their names straight. There were two main story lines which made it more confusing. I really like the Clay Edison character and was determined to finish this book. I spent more time on it than I would have liked because of all the details, many that didn't contribute to the story line. Hoping that this author keeps it less complicated next time.

Another well written book by this duo father and son. I liked the pace and the story line. Kept my interest the whole way through. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher!

This book was a really good, quick read. I was curious how they would make a story about a coroner interesting, but I would absolutely read more stories in a series of books about the main character. As a parent of small children, I especially related to the main character’s vain attempt at a work life balance on little sleep. The jumping back and forth between stories was a little tough to follow at times, but overall I really enjoyed it.

The father and son writing team, Jonathan and Jesse Kellerman, are back with another stellar book. This time Clay Edison, a deputy coroner in Berkeley, California, is adapting to fatherhood (and a baby who doesn’t seem to need very much sleep) and it’s going to take some time. Meanwhile, Clay is working the graveyard shift so that he and his wife can take care of their new daughter without childcare expenses. One evening he is called to a construction site at a local park where a skeleton has been uncovered. The bones belong to a child who was buried decades earlier. While trying to make an identification, Clay is contacted by someone who believes the child could be that of his baby sister who went missing years before.

Half Moon Bay is filled with interesting characters and a plot that evolves and twists. Clay is a competent coroner who is determined to resolve the question of the child’s identity, while remaining objective and unbiased. He takes his job seriously and always tries to do the right thing. This is what makes his character so appealing to me.

This is the third book in the series but I didn’t even realize it until after I finished it. This book was definitely easy to read as a stand-alone and I thoroughly enjoyed my introduction to Clay Edison.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book for review.

Thank you to Random House for providing a copy for an honest review.

It has been a while since I picked up an investigative crime thriller but seeing that this book was set in an area I knew well, it intrigued me to try it. Clay Edison is a coroner in the East Bay of California with a newborn who gets called to the site of a park that is being demolished. There they uncover the remains of a baby and from there the story takes off with 2 mysteries needing to be solved after a man comes forward saying that the baby might be his sister who he never met.

Clay is a very likable person, smart and straight forward who understands the politics of policing and human nature. The inclusion of his newborn daughter is a delight as he deals with things many 1st time parents do like late nights and realizing that being a parent means doing things differently than you used to. His interactions with her and his wife were fun and relatable.

You realize early on in the novel finding the baby is not a simple case as local groups get involved in making the discovery a political matter. I found many parts of the plot realistic as to the nature of America today with different groups fighting, infighting and then government trying to reign it all in. This book does not preach to you what is right or wrong, instead focusing instead on the truth of the case and how simple things can sometimes be twisted. Add into this boiling pot some racists and it of course gets even more complicated and dangerous.

There is another plot point that I found myself connecting to more and where more of the suspense came from. Clay (by himself) takes on the case of what happened to the baby sister of a local man who might have had a sister 50 years ago. This case twisted so many times and I found this is what kept me turning the pages, wanting to find out the end. I liked how the story ended and have now have an interest in reading the 1st 2 books of this series.

Overall if you are looking for a good page turner and enjoy stories that have multiple twists and display the art of investigation I would recommend this. It is not necessary to read the 1st two books in this series.

Includes: racists characters, adult language, detailed description of coroner activities/cases

Clay Edison has proved that he is willing to past his regular job duties as a Deputy Coroner, often digging deep into the cases he has been assigned. He is burning the candle at both ends as he is now a father and his new baby is hardly letting him get enough sleep. The last thing Clay needs about now is to investigate another murder. However, that is exactly what he ends up doing.

When the skeleton of a child is unearthed by workers while demolishing a park, Clay just has to start looking nto things. At the same time, however, an unsettling phone call truly concerns Clay. His sister had gone missing five decades ago, and the skeleton just might be hers. So, this case definitely has a personal edge as far as he is concerned.

As things turn out, not only is the skeleton unearthed, but years of violence, secrets and betrayal as well. Clay's past has become his present.

I found this book to be much more intense than the first two books in the series, Crime Scene and A Measure of Darkness. After all, Clay's past gave this book an extra level of intensity, especially when it touched on serious and delicate issues. For him to work with the case before him, and whatever could have happened to his sister, all the while balancing family life, most definitely kept me riveted to this book. My only issue is that I now need to wait at least a year for the next book in the series.

Many thanks to Random House/Ballantine Books and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

Coroner Clay Edison gets involved in the investigation of bones found in a Berkeley park and a side job finding a man’s unknown missing sister. An engaging mystery. ARC from NetGalley.

Book three of the Clay Edison series by Jonathan Kellerman along and his son Jesse. A vast departure from JK’s Delaware series. And for me, a refreshing change.

When bones are discovered in a controversial excavation site near Berkeley, Deputy Coroner Clay Edison is called in. Early into the investigation he receives a call from a man curious if the
bones could belong to his long-lost sister who died in childhood. Could solving this crime be that easy?

I found the story-line somewhat confusing as Clay attempts to identify the bones and solve the mystery. But I am a fan of Kellerman’s new character - Clay. We get deep insight into both his personal and professional life.

This wasn’t my favorite in the series, but still enjoyed overall and will be looking for the next release.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for an ARC to read and review.

HALF MOON BAY
Jonathan Kellerman and Jesse Kellerman
Ballantine Books
ISBN-13: 978-0525620082
Hardcover
Mystery

I have been waiting for HALF MOON BAY. It is always a special event when any of the Kellerman authors collaborate in any manner. That said, the Clay Edison series by Jonathan Kellerman and Jesse Kellerman is a particular favorite of mine. Edison is a deputy coroner for Alameda County, California, which is known or notorious, as the case may be, for being the locale of the University of Southern California at Berkeley. The university plays a pivotal role in this particular story, so much so that one might be forgiven for detecting the sharp phantom scent of a mood-altering substance while reading this, one of the finest mysteries of the year thus far.

Clay and Amy, his wife, are extremely sympathetic characters, balancing their professions (Amy is a clinical psychologist with a busy practice) with parenting an infant and trying to put together enough money for a home larger than the backyard cottage they are renting. Clay has taken the night shift at the coroner’s office so that Amy can continue her practice during the day. So it is that when some controversial construction at the university unearths the bones of a very young child Clay is pressed into service, a task that he feels particularly obliged to resolve, given the presence of his own child at home. The discovery and resultant publicity bring an extremely wealthy software developer named Peter Franchette to Clay’s office. Franchette believes that the bones of the infant are those of a sister who he never knew. Clay attempts to identify the bones at the office --- a mission that takes him into some deep and unusual thickets --- even as he is driven to assist Franchette on his own time for reasons that he can only vaguely explain to himself. Clay finds himself leaving the confines of Berkeley for a couple of forays into the extremely diverse flora and fauna around the bay area of northern California, and beyond, where folks are adept at keeping secrets not so much by lying as studiously concealing the truth, at least for a while. Clay’s quest leads him to an arson occurring decades ago, a heretofore unsolved kidnapping, an Italian heiress, a vinyl record store, and all sorts of other various assorted and sundry people and objects. The beauty of it all is that in the hands of the Kellermans it all makes perfect sense so quickly and so smoothly that one barely realizes the scope of the cornucopia encountered until several pages have passed. It is a wonder, as are the twin mysteries which propel HALF MOON BAY from beginning to end, not to mention the background signal noise from the social justice warriors who are doomed to get in their own and each other’s way.

You may come for the mysteries in HALF MOON BAY, but you will certainly stay for the conclusion, which is one of the more satisfying of any book that you will read in this or any year. I was reminded for some reason of the ending of Breaking Bad, even though HALF MOON BAY has absolutely and positively nothing in common with that worthy television series. Read HALF MOON BAY and see if you reach a similar conclusion. Even if you don’t see it that way you will not be sorry. Strongly recommended.

Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
© Copyright 2020, The Book Report, Inc. All rights reserved.

This was my first book to read in this series. But wow, was it a page turner. I was hooked from the first page. Held my interest to the point I could not put it down.

When the Coroner , Clay, is summoned to a body found at a digging site he is surprised by the infant. Also found was a little plastic eye. Where had this baby come from?
Many years earlier there had been a kidnapping and the babysitter was brutally beaten but the little girl was never found. Could these cases be related?

As a reader, I really hope the Kellerman family never quits writing books! I could never get enough of them. Every single one is well written, well plotted out and well developed. You can never go wrong picking up a book from any of the three of them!! I look forward to whatever is next.

I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book provided by NetGalley.

I found this book to be both very engaging and intriguing. I liked the fact that there were several different storylines woven into the plot and the authors could still keep the pace of the book on track. The main character is likable and you are rooting for him throughout the book to solve the many mysteries thrown his way. Overall a great summer read.

I received an advanced digital copy of Half Moon Bay for review, and the Kellerman's do not disappoint.
The decades-old bones of a child are found when renovating a park.
Is the dead infant a male or female? Sometimes it feels as though the answer to that doesnt matter in the least. The People's Park history is a message of free love and the hippie-can-do spirit, which only becomes more hyper-politicized in the present day in light of the human remains. The college wants to renovate and take back the land. The people (what people?) are outraged.
A man asks Clay to dig for answers, which he does, while simultaneously digging at the truth as to who and what and how. Someone somewhere knows what happened. Is the baby in the park his sister? Do we really know how many babies or toddlers go missing in the US each year?
Soon, more and more "questionable" and "possibly-human" remains turn up at the park on a daily basis, burying the medical examiner's office in red tape while the true fight is happening in the background, the political unrest of both rich and poor alike. Sit ins and marches, placards and violence. Follow the money.
Jessie Kellerman and Jonathan Kellerman are masters of writing two mysteries in one, three timelines in two, four thematic explorations with enormous clarity and a startling lack of unity; they rattle like bones. They matter.
One thing I truly hope for, is that the authors realize that this reader is tired of always finding a depraved enclave of uneducated, gun-toting, foul-mouthed neo-nazi's who live in trailer houses in the books. Not everyone who lives in a trailer is an inbred, third-grade dropout, with bad manners and poor oral hygiene. Maybe he's a pilot.

I'm a huge fan of Jonathan Kellerman's Alex Delaware mysteries but this book, cowritten with his son Jesse Kellerman, wasn't in the same league. The characters were well written but the plodding pace didn't keep my interest.

“Half Moon Bay” is a first person narrative by Clay Edison. He lives in Berkeley and works in the Alameda County Coroner’s Bureau. He shares his thoughts, concerns, and insecurities with readers. He talks about the world around him and surviving bedlam in the midst of normality. Edison and his wife Amy balance the demands of their jobs with the demands of their baby, Charlotte. The narrative has three distinct styles; Edison is exacting and professional when working, friendly and casual with friends, and panicked and nervous about being a dad. He comments about the world, and he talks to himself a lot.

Edison is called to a construction site on the Berkeley campus when the bones of a child are unearthed. Berkley is always in the midst of one protest or another, and this intensifies the demonstrations. Events unfold in a linear progression with a few flashbacks to fill in details. Edison is steady, systematic, and detailed as he searches for answers, meanwhile, projects halt, protests grow, and people hide secrets. The narrative is strengthened by vivid and exquisite descriptions of everything and everybody.

“The sun sent up a death knell flare. Pale strip of hard-baked dirt ran toward the encroaching dusk.”

“Half Moon Bay” is the location where all the pieces start to fall into place. Edison always seems to be on the edge of chaos; however, this book is not anxiety inducing or traumatizing even though bad things happen. It is easy to follow Edison as he tries to do the best he can with wife, baby, and complex job. “Half Moon Bay” is book three in the series, but it is not necessary to have read the previous books to enjoy this one. I received a copy of “Half Moon Bay” from Jonathan Kellerman, Jesse Kellerman, Random House Publishing Group, and Ballantine Books.

If you've read anything by the Kellermans (and I think I've read them all) then you know you will find many quirky characters and red herrings that will keep your head spinning until the end! Clay is a coroner and a new father, which of course means he is sleep-deprived as well as worried about keeping his job. When the remains of a young infant are unearthed at the site of what could be sacred native land, he has little to go on. And when he gets a call from a man asking help with his little sister who went missing years ago, Clay wonders if there is any connection. So get ready for this latest roller-coaster ride of a book! They never disappoint!

This is the third in the Clay Edison series. I had not read the other two earlier books but I wasn't lost.
In this one there is the skeleton of a baby found in a park. A gentleman gets in touch with Edison and tells him he thinks it is his sister. Edison investigates the missing child case plus the identity of the skeleton, are they one in the same?
A good book and I want to read the two earlier ones now.

HALF MOON BAY (CLAY EDISON, BK 3) BY jONATHAN & JESSIE KELLERMAN

Deputy Coroner Clay Edison is doing double duty in this new thriller. He has a new baby in the house and he's working the night shift.

He's called in to take a look when decades-old bones are found buried in a local park. And it's the body of a child. Then he receives a call from a local businessman wondering if the bones belong to his sister who disappeared 50 years ago. Or so he thinks.

BOOK BLURB: Clay’s relentless search for answers will unearth a history of violence and secrets, revolution and betrayal. Because in this town, the past isn’t dead. It’s very much alive. And it can be murderous.

I have long read Kellerman's books, so I was surprised that this one was not the least bit interesting. It's very slow in some spots, and there are many, varied story lines and characters ... too many to get a good hold of. The plot was convoluted and hard to follow. While not happy with this one, I will still take a chance on the next book. Hopefully this one was an anomaly.

Many thanks to the authors / Random House Publishing - Ballantine / Netgalley for the digital copy of this crime fiction mystery. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.