The Reckoning
by Kelli Stanley

SHE KILLED A MAN.
HE DESERVED IT.
BUT JUSTICE ISN’T YET DONE.

First in an explosive new thriller series set in the eighties from the author of the critically acclaimed Miranda Corbie series introduces the fierce feminist Renata Drake—on the run from the FBI for the execution-style murder of her little sister’s killer.

“Vivid and haunting. I’m eager to hear more from the tenacious and resourceful Renata Drake” Meg Gardiner, #1 New York Times bestselling author

California, Southern Humboldt County, 1985. Renata Drake steps off a Greyhound bus and into small-town Garberville, hoping to disappear. She checks the papers. She’s not headline news. Not yet.

But she’s made a mistake. The FBI have the cannabis-producing “Emerald Triangle” town— and its corrupt residents—in their sights. Even worse, a teenage girl is missing, and when she turns up dead, the third in three years, it’s clear a serial killer is living among them.

Renata knows about murdered girls and the burning desire for justice—and for revenge. Her younger sister Josie is gone, and now, so is the man who killed her. Renata didn’t stay in Washington, D.C. to be arrested for executing a murderer, and she shouldn’t stay here either. But Renata decides to investigate, and what she uncovers will trigger a final reckoning: For herself, for a killer, and for all of Southern Humboldt.

This powerful, page-turning thriller explores the human cost of corruption and the psychological toll that violence takes on women.

Genre: Thriller: serial killers

Reviews

“A real page-turner”

Booklist

“Kelli Stanley’s atmospheric mystery immerses us in a land of beauty, crime, and danger. Set during the unsettling era of 1980s west coast serial killers, the story is vivid and haunting. I’m eager to hear more from the tenacious and resourceful Renata Drake”

Meg Gardiner, #1 New York Times bestselling author

“Stanley’s fine mystery . . . treats the reader”

Publishers Weekly on City of Sharks

“A darkly beautiful work, one of the best to be published so far this year”

Bookreporter on City of Ghosts

“The vigor and pace of a terrific Warner Bros. film noir”

The Wall Street Journal on City of Ghosts

“Engrossing historical fiction”

Associated Press on City of Ghosts

“It’s neonoir in a classical five-act structure, starring one of crime’s most arresting heroines”

Library Journal Starred Review of City of Secrets

“Outstanding . . . A superb series”

South Florida Sun-Sentinel on City of Secrets

“Stanley has a distinctive writing style, conveying thoughts and ambience with poetic brush strokes”

Boston Globe on City of Secrets

“Stunning”

Publishers Weekly Starred Review of City of Dragons

Kelli Stanley

Kelli Stanley is the multiple award-winning and critically acclaimed creator of the Miranda Corbie series (City of Dragons, City of Secrets, City of Ghosts, City of Sharks), noir novels set in 1940 San Francisco and featuring “one of crime’s most arresting heroines” (Library Journal). Kelli has also written an award-winning “Roman Noir” series set in Roman Britain (Nox Dormienda, The Curse-Maker), and has published numerous short stories and essays. A winner of the Macavity, Bruce Alexander, Golden Nugget and Anthony awards, she was also a Shamus and Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist, while the City and County of San Francisco awarded her a Certificate of Merit for her contributions to literature. She was named a literary heir of Dashiell Hammett by his granddaughter in a Publisher’s Weekly article, and critics have compared her work to her icons Raymond Chandler and Norman Corwin. Kelli was chosen to be the Historical Mystery Guest of Honor for the Bouchercon Mystery Conference in 2024.

Her next novel, The Reckoning, is a tense and haunting mystery-thriller set in Humboldt County, CA in 1985—the heart of the “Emerald Triangle” during a fraught and frightening era of unsolved disappearances, serial killers and the intense criminalization of marijuana. The Reckoning is the first of a series featuring protagonist Renata Drake.

Kelli holds a Master’s Degree in Classics, and when she’s not reading or writing, loves nature walks, jazz, classic film, travel, and, with her spouse, taking care of their two rescue cats.

View author page

Editions

The Reckoning by Kelli Stanley is available in the following formats

Hardback97814483175476th January 2026144 X 222mm336$29.99
Hardback97814483175476th January 2026144 X 222mm336£21.99
Ebook97814483175546th January 2026N/A336£12.99
Ebook97814483175546th January 2026N/A336£12.99
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