The Dead Student

Book excerpt: A grad student and his ex-girlfriend team up to solve a murder in this psychological thriller from the New York Times–bestselling author of Just Cause. Timothy “Moth” Warner, a Miami PhD student, wakes up on his ninety-ninth day of sobriety with an intense craving for alcohol. He asks his uncle Ed, a former alcoholic and now successful psychiatrist, to meet him at an AA meeting later that day. But when Ed doesn’t show up, Moth bikes to his office only to find his uncle lying in a pool of blood. The police pronounce the death a suicide, but Moth can’t believe it. Devastated and confused, he calls on the only person he thinks he can trust: Andrea Martine, an ex-girlfriend he has not spoken to in years. Each battling their inner demons, Moth and Andy travel into dark, unfamiliar territory, intent on uncovering the truth about Ed’s death and circling ever closer to a devious mind that will flinch at nothing for revenge. A Publishers Weekly top 10 mystery & thriller for fall An Amazon book of the month in the mystery/thriller category “Katzenbach ratchets up his trademark intensity in The Dead Student.” —Sun Sentinel (South Florida) “A twisted, compelling tale of death and deceit.” —Lansing State Journal “An intricately woven plot with sensitively drawn characters.” —The Washington Times “The Dead Student . . . demonstrates why [Katzenbach] has a place on many ‘must-read author’ lists . . . You will want to read [it] in one sitting.” —BookReporter “One of the freshest and most unlikely duos to appear in crime fiction.” —Kirkus Reviews “[A] clever cat-and-mouse thriller.” —Publishers Weekly