The gripping new crime novel in the 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?