Who: Jayne Hall and Steelie Lander, forensic anthropologists
What: Agency 32/1
Where: Los Angeles, California
When: 2005
How: Profiling missing persons to aid their identification when found, dead or alive.
Why: Because they give a damn.
"Irrésistible." - ELLE France
"This impressive mystery debut rests on a fascinating real-life premise... [a] remarkably detailed exploration of a heartbreakingly sad but strangely humanizing calling that places its practitioners 'halfway between the living and the dead, helping to work a link that transcended time and space'... one of the most promising new crime series to appear this year." - Booklist
"Koff's intriguing mystery debut introduces two strong women [who] do forensic profiles of missing persons... [Koff] paints a vivid picture of the effect of those losses on victims' loved ones. The costs are heavy for those who try to help, but so are the rewards ... Readers will look forward to the sequel." - Publishers Weekly
"Freezing is an intricately plotted thriller rich with fascinating forensic details only a pro could deliver. A great debut." - Jonathan Kellerman
"Koff has written a procedural with emotional depth ... [she] fills her debut thriller with fascinating true-to-life forensic details [and] steadily builds the suspense to the climactic twist... Readers who enjoy Patricia Cornwell and Kathy Reichs won't want to miss this." - Library Journal
"Coriace." - Grazia
When a bundle of frozen body parts tumbles out of the rear door of a van on a Los Angeles freeway, FBI agent Scott Houston knows just where to go for an off-the-record analysis: Agency 32/1, a non-profit missing persons identification resource center run by forensic anthropologists Jayne Hall and Steelie Lander. Jayne and Steelie quickly determine that the remains are human, though from several women. But Scott’s call has unintended consequences for the two women, putting their lives in jeopardy, as their unique skills uncover evidence leading directly to the killer . . .
"Clea Koff, anthropologue médico-legale, signe un thriller trépidant. Traqueur traqué, criminel machiavélique, expert en blouse blanche, elle flirte avec le danger, joue avec nos nerfs et manie la plume comme le scalpel." - Éditions Héloïse d’Ormesson
Severn House Publishers - 2011
Éditions Héloïse d’Ormesson - 2012
Publisher: Éditions Héloïse d’Ormesson (in French)
Audiovisual Rights: PatMa Productions
When LAPD Homicide Detectives find it impossible to use law enforcement systems to identify a body found buried on the UCLA campus, they call in Jayne Hall and Steelie Lander of Agency 32/1. The agency, named for Article 32 Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions, is enhancing missing person reports to help ID thousands of bodies backlogged in coroners’ offices around the US. It’s a race against time as Jayne and Steelie’s non-profit grants, volunteer receptionist and very basic health insurance are all set to run out.
Jayne and Steelie use their specialist forensic anthropology skills to help the detectives make an ID by taking into account the body’s mixed-race ancestry – and unwittingly trigger the discovery of the body of another mixed-race UCLA student. The possibility of hate crimes on a university campus only means one thing: FBI involvement. Special Agents Scott Houston and Eric Ramos join the team, eventually leading the group to a perpetrator whose fixation on ‘race purity’ has taken him down a labyrinth of conspiracy theories so extreme that events assume life-or-death proportions before anyone realizes that Jayne is in the killer’s sights.
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