The Murder of Orson Crane: Case 24: A Lt. Kate Gazzara Novel

A locked room. A dead judge. An impossible crime.

Judge Orson Crane ruled his courtroom with an iron fist—and his family with an even harder one. Now he’s dead, shot in his locked study. The gun is at his side. His key rests on the desk.

The ruling is swift.

Suicide. Case closed.

But Captain Kate Gazzara knows a staged ending when she sees one.

As Kate investigates the powerful Crane family, she uncovers years of cruelty, buried secrets, gambling debts, affairs, missing weapons, and a household bound together by fear and resentment. Two sons with motives. A wife with secrets. A family shaped by a tyrant who left scars on everyone around him.

Someone in that house wanted Orson Crane dead.

Someone who planned the perfect crime.

In her final case, Kate Gazzara faces a killer who thought of everything—almost everything.

This novel stands on its own, but longtime readers will recognize the steady resolve, sharp instincts, and hard-earned experience that have defined Kate’s career across the Lt. Kate Gazzara series. New readers will find a compelling entry point into a richly developed world of methodical investigations, complex motives, and justice hard won.

A classic locked-room mystery—and a powerful capstone to one of crime fiction’s most enduring detectives.