Jo Beckett
4 primary works
Book 1
Book 2
A pulse-pounding, race-against-time thriller featuring forensic psychiatrist Jo Beckett.
Forensic psychiatrist Jo Beckett's speciality is the psychological autopsy - an investigation into a person's life to determine whether a death was natural, accidental, suicide, or homicide. When Jo is asked to do a psychological autopsy on a living person - one with a suspect memory who can't be trusted to participate in his own medical care - she knows all her skills will be put to the test. Jo is called to the scene of an aircraft inbound from London to help deal with a passenger who is behaving erratically. She figures out that Ian Kanan has got anterograde amnesia, and can't form new memories. Jo finds herself racing to save a patient who can walk and talk and yet can't help Jo figure out just what happened to him. Suddenly a string of clues arises, something to do with a super deadly biological agent code-named "Slick", a kidnapping, and a secret partnership gone horribly wrong. Jo realises Kanan's addled mind may hold the key to preventing something terrible from happening in her beloved San Francisco. With time running out, she will have to get deeper into the life of a patient than she ever has before, hoping the truth emerges from the fog of his mind in time to save her city - and herself.
Book 3
When you have to take on the White House there's only one woman to call – Jo Beckett.
When a rock singer is killed onstage during a concert, Jo Beckett is called in to perform a psychological autopsy. But Tasia McFarland's death causes Jo all kinds of problems, because Tasia is the ex-wife of the President of the United States.
The White House pressures Jo to declare Tasia's death an accident rather than a homicide. The media and conspiracy nuts rant that Tasia was knocked off to silence her, for unknown reasons. Fringe extremists seethe about taking direct action to "save America" from the president and his administration.
Jo learns that an obsessed fan was apparently stalking Tasia. The stalker may have killed her and escaped in the panic at the concert.
As the media and conspiracy frenzy grows, the White House leans harder on Jo to close the case. When she won't, Gabe Quintana finds his military orders suddenly changed, and he's called up to active duty in Afghanistan… in 72 hours.
Jo discovers the identity of the stalker. It’s someone who's obsessed with Tasia's new boyfriend, a famous country singer. Jo calls the police but she's too late. The stalker stabs the singer to death.
The police kill the stalker. The case seems to have come to a spectacular conclusion. But Jo doesn't think the stalker in fact murdered Tasia; the facts don't add up. She fears that Tasia was killed for other reasons. And she's nervous, because the President is coming to San Francisco to attend Tasia's memorial service…
Book 4
In the California wilderness no one can hear you scream.
San Francisco Forensic Psychiatrist Jo Beckett doesn't dissect the body or the crime scene - she dissects a life and a mind, recreating the victim as a person, piecing together the story of their death to get to the truth. And then she goes after the killer.
Autumn Reiniger wants something special for her twenty-first birthday. Daddy's bought her the car and the apartment, but now she wants excitement. And what Autumn desires, she gets.
Her father signs-up her and five friends for an ultimate urban reality game. 'Edge Adventures' alert the SF police that a 'crime situation' is underway, so the authorities will ignore any squealing tires or desperate cries for help.
Then - when working on a case nearby - Jo Beckett encounters a group of men carting six sullen college kids to the woods for a wilderness adventure. Suspicious, she takes a closer look. And winds up with an invite to a birthday party she may never leave ...