In this novel, the murder of his sister sends a geology professor to California’s High Desert on a mission to gain greater understanding of his sibling and ferret out her killer.

Forty-four-year-old L. Walker Clayborne, professor of geology and geophysics at the University of California, San Diego, was preparing to leave on a sabbatical when he received a call from the sheriff in Yucca Valley informing him of his sister Claire’s murder. Now, he is standing in the valley’s hospital morgue staring at Claire’s battered body, remembering how she received that small scar at the top of her lip. He meets police Det. Rick Bolles, and as they talk, he begins to realize how little he really knows about his rebellious sister. Two weeks later, after a funeral held in Phoenix, where the professor, Claire, and their older brother, Edgar, were raised, Walker heads to Joshua Tree, California. Now that the crime tape has been taken down, he enters Claire’s small cottage for the first time. He will soon embark on an investigative, emotional, and metaphysical journey that will challenge his highly focused, carefully organized persona. He has also unknowingly put his own life in danger. That first day he meets one of Claire’s friends, Kirsten Benninger, who shares her suspicions that the murder has something to do with his sister’s involvement with a group protesting “Universal Waste,” an international corporation planning to build the world’s largest landfill in the desert. But this is just one of many possibilities: Claire served as a counselor at Eagle Mountain prison, worked with drug addicts in rehab, and volunteered at a free health clinic that also helped abused women. The police have made scant progress, leaving the heavy lifting to Walker, aided by a devoted and eclectic circle of Claire’s friends.

Isaak’s meticulously detailed prose is engaging from the get-go in this novel published posthumously. The narrative, albeit a bit overpacked, offers something for almost everyone: the geological history of Yucca Valley, implicit social commentary, metaphysical phenomena, fringe group religious zealousness, and, of course, a basic murder mystery. Walker narrates the tale, and readers quickly learn how amusingly controlled he is: “I had to move all my dental items to the right” of the sink. “No matter how you clean an electric razor there are always little whisker fragments, and I tried to make sure they stayed out of my toothbrush.” But most intriguing are Claire’s friends, who warmly welcome Walker into their fold and ultimately help him unlock the secrets and untapped flexibility of his own psyche. There is computer whiz Mandy Cicerone, who has psychic visions, and the mysteriously captivating Melanie, who describes herself as an occultist and practices wicca on the side. Just outside the friendship circle but critical to the story is the eccentric, eminent physicist Ronald Ettenmoor, who is conducting paranormal experiments. This is an intoxicating mix of characters. The book, which delivers an action-filled climax, provides a compelling study of the dynamics of unique interpersonal relationships.

A satisfying and thought-provoking mystery with an enthralling cast.