Peyton McKean Short Mysteries Series

DNA-test researcher Peyton McKean and his sidekick Fin Morton are called in to help unravel some inexplicable DNA results in a grisly murder case in a desert canyon in eastern Washington State. Blood traces suggest the perpetrator was wounded but the sample contains DNA from both canine and human sources. While McKean gathers more samples, Charlie Moses, a Native American traditionalist whose campsite is nearby, joins them. Sheriff Joe Tanner quickly establishes that Moses has no alibi and moves him to the top of his list of suspects. Moses, on the other hand, proposes that the killer might be Woyotl, a half-man, half-coyote creature of his family legends. McKean confirms that the blood indeed contains both human and canine DNA, and this leads him to play a hunch. He visits the nearby Hanford Nuclear Power facility where a former colleague, Derek Curman, was carrying out experiments aimed at creating dogs capable of entering radiation spill sites. It doesn't take long to establish that Curman had genetically altered his dogs, and also to learn he has mysteriously disappeared, taking one of them with him. These are just the first clues in a long and convoluted trail that leads back to the canyon, to Moses, and to an entity too awful to contemplate, created by Curman. McKean's horror grows as he realizes the solution to this murder mystery is more astonishing—and terrifying—than anyone could have suspected.

The victim, cedar-tree poacher Bradley Olafsen, was found dead beside traces of a freshly removed cedar log and police detectives have fingered an old derelict found raving nearby. Henry George, a native with a grudge against modern society, stands accused of killing Olafsen to avenge the death of the tree. George's mad utterances about ghost tree spirits and his hatred for the dead man make it look like an open-and-shut case. But is it? Something otherworldly lurks among long-dead stumps around the murder scene. Police are sure they've got their man, but McKean's brilliant mind sees beyond the obvious—which leads him into danger. He uses modern biotechnology tools to establish a thread of DNA evidence linking the cut tree to a shingle-splitting factory operation that uses wood of questionable sources. There, McKean identifies other suspects, but the police aren't buying it. No one has ever used DNA to solve forestry crimes. McKean's suspects are on to him now and it's not long before his life is threatened. Somehow, the resolution of this tale of murder among the stumps of a long-dead forest will revolve around the shamanistic wisdom of old Henry George, McKean's wits and scientific skills, and answers that can only be found in a fern-choked grotto where the spirits of forest giants seem to watch the comings and goings of men, remembering Chief Seattle's famous words, "The dead are not entirely powerless."

When Erik Torvald, a licensed digger of giant geoduck clams, is found dead of a massive dose of red tide toxin, McKean is called in by police to use his biotechnological genius to unravel the mystery. Did Torvald die simply by eating some of the clams he dug? Or, given the huge quantities of toxin in his bloodstream, was he poisoned? If so, how? And by whom? McKean and his sidekick Fin Morton follow the trail deep into the local Native American culture, encountering resistance both as outsiders and as people who may threaten several native suspects in the case. Among these is Henry George, an old derelict man with shamanistic medicine skills and a deep-seated grudge against modern culture. Other clues lead to risky encounters with non-natives who have ties to both drug dealers and the clam fishing industry. As McKean pursues the case, relying on his labs to study the lethal toxin, he discovers that someone has begun to pursue him. The question soon becomes: can Peyton McKean solve the mystery before he himself becomes the Blood Tide's next victim?

When University of Washington computer-graphics Professor Kyle Smith is gunned down in cold blood, the police are mystified as to the motive. But when Peyton McKean accesses the dead man's computer, he finds a clue that is impossible to ignore—a video tape of Osama bin Laden released just before the 2004 election that may have altered its outcome. But this video is an unfinished, early version of the final faked product. Noting that the file was created by one of Smith's students, Ali Yamani, McKean and his sidekick Fin Morton are surprised when Yamani's wife Fatima arrives at McKean's office and tearfully confesses on behalf of her husband, who has gone into hiding. She pleads for McKean's help, believing the hired killer who murdered Smith will come for his student next. McKean and Morton agree to meet with Yamani, unaware that the killer has been watching McKean's lab closely. A chain of events has begun that will propel McKean and Morton down one of the most treacherous paths they have ever taken. Behind the scenes are corrupt politicians, organized crime, and a hitman whose singleminded purpose is to wipe out any and all people who are aware of the fake video's origins. This taut political thriller is a page turner, start-to-finish.