The Beryllium Murder — Camille Minichino

Hard Science and Homicide

As spunky as she is shrewd, physicist sleuth Gloria Lamerino heads back to her old stomping grounds in Berkeley, California, to look into the death of former colleague Gary Larkin, dead o beryllium poisoning. Though his cleat has been ruled accidental, Gloria is suspicious: Gary was much too aware of the hazards of this dangerous element to be so reckless in his handling of it.

She never imagined Larkin's death would be connected to the disappearance of a teenage boy. Or that the ambitious high school student had discovered some transgressions by Larkin and his colleagues, and had been profiting fro some clever, computerized blackmail. The pieces of the puzzle come together like a new molecular formula for homicide: Internet pornography, hacking, extortion, jealousy and revenge--and a killer making murder into a science.