Malice and brilliance are a deadly combination

Dignified, silver-haired Mr. Parsifal Snowe is a bit of an enigma even to his closest associates. He has an air of omniscience, tempered by his courteous and self-effacing demeanor. But how did such a man end up as the leader of a motley crew of psychic detectives?

In The Obituary Collector we go back to 2006, and the founding of Snowe Agency—when Mr. Snowe is asked for help in the case of a series of deaths in a psychiatric hospital, where each is preceded by a note containing clues in the form of literary quotes. Very quickly he sees that the killings are the work of a highly intelligent, but profoundly disturbed, mind.

And when a fourth note is found, he realizes that the murders aren't over yet.

His expertise in history and literature entangles him in the lives of long-term psychiatric patients, including a brash young woman with a dangerous tendency to eavesdrop, an aging former prizefighter, a weary and jaded woman whose elegant appearance belies a history of violence, a schizophrenic arsonist, and a damaged, brilliant young man with an obsession for collecting the obituaries of strangers. But the murders may not be the work of one of the patients—and the staff who cares for them all seem to have something to hide.

Mr. Snowe quickly finds that he won't be able to solve this case alone, and enlists the help of four people—the psychics Troy Seligman, Bethany Hale, and Callista Lee investigating, with the details managed by the ultra-competent but eccentric malaprop Arabella Leidenfrost. But will their efforts be enough to stop a killer who is determined to destroy the patients and staff of Riverside Psychiatric Hospital one after another?