Alexa Glock Forensics Mysteries

When a body is found half-submerged in a molten mud pot in one of Rotorua's famous geothermal wonderlands, forensics expert Alexa Glock spots a way to prolong her stay in New Zealand, which she has been visiting for work. Teeth are her expertise, and the investigation needs her help, as other ways of identifying the body may have... melted away. Joining Detective Inspector Bruce Horne and his team, Alexa discovers that the murder victim, a city councilman, had trespassed on an island sacred to the Maori. The ancient punishment for such a transgression is disaster, demonic possession, or death... and when she visits the island to investigate, the same outcome is promised for her. Alexa doesn't believe in ancient spirits returning to exact revenge, but then another victim turns up dead, and she begins to wonder whether the real threat is something, or someone, much closer to home.

At first, Alexa Glock's initial case as a traveling forensic investigator seems straightforward-her expertise in teeth helps her identify the skeletal remains of a hunter found on the remote Stewart Island of New Zealand. But when she realizes the bullet lodged in his skull was not self-inflicted, and then a second shark-ravaged body washes up on Ringaringa Beach, it's clear that something dangerous is lurking in the beautiful waters surrounding the island. The disturbing sight seems to confirm what locals have hashed out in the pub: shark cage-diving, lucrative for owners and popular with tourists, has changed the great white sharks' behavior, turning them into man-eaters. Tensions between cagers and locals mount as Alexa dives into the harrowing case. While measuring bite patterns, she makes a shocking discovery that just might lead her to who-or what-is behind both deaths.

New Zealand's remote Milford Track seems the perfect place for forensic investigator Alexa Glock to reconnect with her brother Charlie, with whom she hasn't spent much time since they were kids. But their backpacking trip seems ill-fated from the start: she must stop on the way to examine nine skeletons - most likely Māori tribespeople - whose graves have been unearthed by highway construction. Before she opens the first casket, a Māori elder gives her a dire warning: The viewing of bones can unleash misfortune to the living. Or worse. Though Alexa dismisses his words as superstitious, they soon come back to haunt her as the idyllic hike takes a sinister turn. First, Charlie is aloof and resentful of the time Alexa has spent at work. Then a rock avalanche nearly carries her away as it reveals the skeletal remains of someone who has clearly been stabbed to death. When a fellow hiker goes missing and is later found dead, it's all Alexa can do to focus on the science as she investigates two murders, while trying not to become the third victim.

Cape Kidnappers, New Zealand: On a cliff overlooking the ocean and one of the largest gannet bird colonies in the world, American CEO Harlan Quinn has built his Plan B-a lavish estate, complete with an underground doomsday bunker. When the cleaning staff finds a body within, it appears the victim died of natural causes, but advanced facial decomposition leaves him unidentifiable. It can't be Quinn, according to his property manager/mistress and his wife back in the states, both of whom insist that the tech mogul is in Germany on business. But the uncooperative wife will not allow the police to search the main house for signs that the billionaire was on site, and so forensic odontologist Alexa Glock is called in to identify the body via dental records. Teeth never lie; the victim is indeed Harlan Quinn. All that's left is an autopsy to determine the cause of death. But something odd in the deceased's mouth sets Alexa and the team on a new track-to find Quinn's murderer. As they work to narrow the suspect field, a second homicide-and a stolen cache of weapons from a locked room in the bunker-ramp up the investigation and the risk to Alexa's life. Will she be able to solve this particular riddle before she becomes victim #3?

"Some say the world will end in fire. Some say in ice..."-Robert Frost Alexa Glock is teetering on a precipice, the ground threatening to open up beneath her-and it's not just the immediate peril of retrieving a long–lost hiker's skull, given up by a melting and dangerous glacier. She's spending a ski weekend with boyfriend DI Bruce Horne and his two daughters, and she couldn't be more terrified. An entire weekend trying to win over a sullen teenager and a preteen with obvious loyalties to Mom? She's more comfortable almost sliding to her death on an unstable glacier. When she indeed finds herself dangling in a crevasse waiting for the experts to rescue her, she discovers a pelvis (wearing a red Speedo!) frozen in the ice, and the heartbreaking task of identifying multiple remains and bringing closure to families begins. Once safely back on terra firma, awaiting the arrival of Bruce and his dreaded daughters, Alexa follows the smell of smoke to a nearby pizza joint which has been completely destroyed by fire. When a body is discovered in the smoldering ruins, Alexa splits her time between fire and ice, working to identify a family's long–lost loved one and the charred remains of the fire victim. Then an avalanche during a snowboard competition leaves Bruce's oldest daughter missing along with the snowboarder she's been hanging out with. As Bruce and other rescuers race to find the missing teens, evidence begins to suggest that neither the fire nor the avalanche were accidents, and that the daughter's boyfriend might have information about both...