Dead Matters (A Forensic Thriller)

Ella Penrose takes the cases science can’t solve—and works to separate myths from monsters—in this gripping thriller from CSI writer/producer Josh Berman.

At 3:02 a.m. in Savannah’s historic district, a hideous, shuffling figure crosses the town square under the eye of a bank security camera. The next morning, FBI agent Ella Penrose is summoned to a nearby house where a man lies dead and partially devoured. Her partner reminds her that zombies aren’t real, but as head of the Paranormal Crimes Unit, tasked with cases that seemingly defy scientific explanation, Ella knows to keep her mind as open as the victim’s chest cavity.

With the security footage already leaked online and racking up views, the pressure to explain the inexplicable is mounting. But each new piece of evidence only deepens the mystery: beetles found on the victim belonging to a species long-thought extinct, or the decaying arm recovered near the victim’s home from an entirely different body, and a scrap of fabric at the murder scene linking back to the Civil War. As the contradictions pile up, Ella is forced to confront the possibility that the case may lie beyond the limits of conventional investigation.

Zombie lore stretches back centuries, but in an age of deepfakes and drug-induced psychosis, separating myth from reality has never been more difficult. If something real is hiding beneath the noise, Ella will uncover it. She came to the FBI for justice. She stayed for cases like this . . .

Taut, character-driven, and steeped in atmosphere, Dead Matters delivers the intensity of CSI with the psychological edge of Mindhunter and southern tension of True Detective.