[Periodic Table 04] • The Beryllium Murder [Uncorrected]

Sporting brains, hips, and a sense of adventure, fifty-six-year-old Gloria Lamerino single-handedly proved her mettle as a shrewd physicist-sleuth in The Lithium Murder , and she's about to do it again.

Gloria suspects something is amiss when she learns that Gary Larkin has died of beryllium poisoning in his Berkeley, California, physics laboratory. The police deem his death a tragic accident, but Gloria, who has worked with Gary before, knows better. She heads out to the West Coast, determined to uncover the truth. In the process, she finds herself enmeshed in the search for a missing teenager. Internet pornography, beryllium disease, jealous coworkers, nasty divorce proceedings, and an illegitimate child. All are pieces of the puzzle, and it isn't long before Gloria discovers that her two parallel investigations are linked in ways even she never expected. The Beryllium Murder transports us to the scenic Berkeley hills--and to a self-contained world where hard science and sudden death meet.