Shallow graves

Shallow Graves is the opening novel of Jeffery Deaver's Location Scout trilogy. Once a rising figure in Hollywood, John Pellam saw his career derailed by a personal tragedy, and he has since reinvented himself as a location scout, touring the country to find places where films can be shot.

His work usually brings him a warm welcome. Townspeople tend to eagerly seek a brush with the movies when he arrives. In a small upstate New York community, however, his reception turns hostile almost at once, when a brutal killing shatters the polished image he has been chasing and pulls him into the middle of the case. Violence, desire and conspiracy spread through a town that is far less perfect than it looks on camera.