The Murder Notebook

by: Jonathan Santlofer

Published by: William Morrow

Reviewed by Knevits Stephens

Nate Rodriguez is a forensics sketch artist who works freelance. He is still dealing with the death of his father a few years ago. He and his mother don’t have much to say to one another since that time. Deep down Nate feels guilty about the death.

Terri Russo is Nate’s girlfriend. She works for a task force for one of the departments. As the leader of the task force, she has three men under her. Terri and Nate don’t tell others they are a couple and try not to work together unless necessary.

Nate gets assigned a skull to recreate. It is a “John Doe,” and they feel he may be the person to figure out whose skull it was. Terri is coming across people dead. She needs help with the case and hires Nate to help her. Nate is taken off working on the skull but now works on it in his free time. He and Terri are questioning people when another body turns up dead.

Nate’s mom comes to town for a visit. He introduces Terri and they hit it off. Nate thinks this is finally his one shot to talk to his mom about his dad’s death. Just when he gets the nerve he backs down. Mom leaves with the words still unspoken between the two of them.

They are not getting answers as quickly as they need them, so Nate takes to the streets to find answers. He finally finds what he’s looking for. The only problem is getting the task force to see the clues for what they really mean.

With all the sketches and clues, Nate finally figures it out. Then when the skull is all done, a bell goes off in Nate’s head. Now after all these years since his dad’s death, there might be another break in that case as well.

I love how you see the sketches and the book tells you how to recreate a skull. The book is very interesting and keeps you turning the pages.

Armchair Interviews says: Another page-turner.

Author’s Web site: http://www.JonathanSantlofer.com