White Crow

Homicide detective Jake McCarthy is having the worst possible week: his wife's left him for a Food Network celebrity chef, the county's meth-dealing kingpin wants him dead, his boss needs him to close more cases... and that's before the jetliner engine crashes through his roof. Yet even those events seem minor league compared to the crime spree he's tasked with solving: seven theatrical murders, with an obscure physics diagram left at each scene.

As a onetime physics teacher, Jake is the most qualified person in 500 miles to puzzle out the killer's motive—but his massive I.Q. seems no match for his ghostlike opponent. With his life hitting rock bottom, Jake is finally forced to question whether leaving the Ivory Tower to become a cop was the healthiest decision—because as a cop, he might not survive past Friday.