“No,” Stevie said. “There are a few suspects, but part of the problem is that Jack the Ripper is more of a media creation than a . . .”

He moved closer, leaning his body into hers, careful not to put pressure on her broken arm.

“This is why I love you,” he said, “you murder-obsessed freak.”

Love?

“Yeah,” he said in response to the unvoiced question. “I just confessed, and I’m ready to do the time.”

The lake was still but for the buzzing of the bugs and the gentle swoosh of the bats. Behind them, there was the sound of laughter from the campers and distant singing of campfire songs. But Stevie did not hear them. She was so engrossed in the kissing that everything else was blocked out, including the water snake that slid behind them and slipped into the silent waters of the lake.

Sometimes, it’s better not to know.

Author’s Note

Frances Glessner Lee is a real person, and everything I said about her Nutshell Studies in this book is true. The studies are still used to train investigators to this day. The Smithsonian has digitized them and put them online; they have even enabled virtual reality so you can go inside the tiny rooms and examine the details. I used this source, as well as The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death by Corinne May Botz, which has close-up photographs of the studies and explanations of some of the scenes. They are not solutions, really; the point of the studies is to learn to observe. As the quote at the opening of this book states, the investigator’s job is to clear the innocent as much as it is to identify the guilty. The studies are about finding truth, which can be complex.

If you are interested in true crime and investigation, they are well worth the time. Be aware that the studies are detailed depictions of death, and despite the fact that they are incredible works of miniature, they are also graphic in nature.

Acknowledgments

Much of this book was written during the pandemic of 2020, while New York City was hammered by the disease. It would quite literally not be possible without the lifesaving efforts of all the people on the front lines who treated, fed, drove, rung up, and ran the city. I wrote it while listening to the wail of sirens and the nightly claps for the medical personnel going to the hospitals. My first thank-you must go to everyone who kept us all going—and there are so many of you. Wherever you are, thank you.

Thanks always to my agent, my friend, my general partner in crime, Kate Schafer Testerman of KT Literary. Where would I be without you, buddy?

Many, many people at HarperCollins have made Stevie’s detective work possible. I must thank them all. Thank you to my incredible, passionate editor, Katherine Tegen, and the amazing editorial team: Sara Schonfeld, Alexandra Rakaczki, and Christine Corcoran Cox. On the production and art side—the people who make things beautiful and the book physically possible to hold and read—thank you to: Vanessa Nuttry, David DeWitt, Joel Tippie, Katie Fitch, Leo Nickolls, and Charlotte Tegen. And the book would never make it into the world without the efforts of the marketing and publicity teams, so more and more thanks to: Michael D’Angelo, Audrey Diestelkamp, Jacquelynn Burke, and Anna Bernard.