Murder in the Pollen
A Forensic Palynology Mystery

About this book:

When a prominent developer's body surfaces in a sterile shipping canal, the only witness is the navy wool coat he wore—and the microscopic secrets woven into its fibers. Dr. Elizabeth Vance speaks the language of the dead through pollen: the indestructible, insect-borne grains that cling to fabric like fingerprints, each species a GPS coordinate to a hidden crime scene. With forty-eight hours before a powerful suspect walks free, Elizabeth must translate a clump of rare, honeycombed spores into courtroom proof—before the defense buries her science in legal technicalities.

Detective Raymond Miller needs a map, not a microscope. But as Elizabeth traces the pollen's lineage from coat collar to a specific, insect-pollinated bloom, the investigation pulls them from the city's concrete veins into the Pine Barrens, through hidden greenhouses and unmapped meadows. Every chapter peels back another layer of the victim's final hours: a second wardrobe, a rare hybrid, a marshland trail, a secret conservatory. The killer didn't just leave a body—they left a botanical signature, and Elizabeth is the only one who can read it.

*Murder in the Pollen* is a forensic thriller rooted in the startling real-world science of palynology, where a single grain can shatter an alibi and a season's dispersal patterns write the history of a murder. For readers who love the precision of Patricia Cornwell, the atmospheric tension of Tana French, and the intellectual satisfaction of watching a microscopic clue unravel a macroscopic lie.