Part noir, part odyssey, Heat Signature mines the psychological and emotional landscape of loss as a son tries to cope with the murder of his mother.

Sam Brown sets out on a road trip from his home in a small California desert town to the cooler, greener climes of the Northwest. He tells himself he just needs a break, from his father, a dead-end relationship with a stripper, his job as a nurse, and his troubled best friend. But what he can't escape, no matter how many miles he travels, is the memory of his mother, July, who was brutally murdered sixteen years earlier and visits him regularly in his dreams. Sam's grief is sorely renewed when he learns July's murderer is soon to be released from prison.

Overcome by strong feelings of panic and revenge, he turns to women. He reconnects with a former patient in Los Angeles. In Santa Barbara he meets a sage/philosopher who inspires him to put order in his life. In Oregon, he falls in love with an arborist whose woodsy home provides peace and refuge — at least for a while. Simultaneous with Sam's journey, his mother's story unfolds, coming to a climax when the details of July's grisly murder are revealed.

Through a fast-paced, gripping narrative, Heat Signature explores the complexities of family and friendship, love and loss, race and sexuality.

"Teasley (Dive) transcends the mystery and thriller genres with her moody second novel populated by unusual but recognizable people living on the left coast of America — each wounded in his or her own way. The son of an African-American woman and a Native American man, 31-year-old Sam Brown is haunted by memories of his mother, July, who was raped and murdered when he was a teenager. Sam lives with his gruff, eccentric but loving stepfather, pipe fitter Joe Braxton, in the California desert community of Twentynine Palms, where Sam works as a nurse at the vast military base that dominates the area. Learning that July's killer is about to be released from prison in San Diego, Sam sets off on a road trip up the Pacific coast, seeking solace and pleasure from a series of short-lived affairs with women, including a former patient in Los Angeles, a near-saint in Santa Barbara and a tree expert in Oregon. Teasley interrupts Sam's odyssey with flashbacks to the sad details of July's death, giving her novel a dark, effective frame." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"It's bad enough when your dreams are haunted by your own mother, who was murdered while you were in your teens. This is what Sam Brown faces in Lisa Teasley's new novel, 'Heat Signature.' But with the parole of his mother's murderer, Sam is also afflicted by raging migraines. He goes on an odyssey along the California and Oregon coasts, investigating his mother's murder, while, in alternate chapters,... Washington Post Book Review (read the entire Washington Post review) her life story unfolds.

Sam is a black man, and 'Heat Signature' has the potential to be a murder mystery with racial overtones. In short, it has the elements of a compelling story. So how could it possibly go wrong?

And yet it does. Beginning with a cockfighting scene, the narrative seems to take on a film-noir tone: 'They bring out the lean, dark chocolate-feathered cock they'll use for bait. One of these birds will be killed right in front of him. Sam can't help thinking of his mother. Sixteen years has passed since he last saw her in the flesh. Now a man, he may as well be a child; the pain is just as hot and fresh. In two days her murderer will be out on parole.'

Sadly, that intriguing voice proves to be as erratic as Sam's behavior; soon the prose becomes labored, sometimes nearly unfathomable: 'July's desire for Otis' wanted document that Shawn Lamb said he had but didn't when she last met with him, intensified in itch as she remembered the grandmother she never met was named Rebecca.'

The same inconsistencies affect the characters themselves, especially Sam, who races from one unlikely emotion to another. Driving up the coast, he abandons a girlfriend for a rapid-fire series of one-night stands. Never mind that he is being stalked by a killer (who seems more an afterthought than a real threat) or that he still thinks incessantly about his mother. He translates his grief into seductions, as in this scene with one of the numerous women whom he tells about his mother's fate: 'He cries more easily since he has been crying so much these past days on the road. "I'm being such a baby," he says, biting his knuckle before throwing his arms around her and sobbing into her neck. When his tears and snot become a gush, he grabs his T-shirt from the floor and lovingly wipes it off of her. Her long neck is soft with golden down at the throat. He stares at it, pets the hollow with his finger, and kisses her there. His tongue finds its warm, hot way in her mouth, tickling her palate, getting to know the bumps and lines.'

He spends so much time with various women, and his hopping from one to the other is so abrupt and unlikely, that the larger story of his mother's murder seems a mere contrivance for his misbehavior. True, in the face of such anger and grief a son might be pushed to extremes, but for this to ring true, the author needs to provide a genuine sense of the person and the psychology underpinning his choices. Teasley does little of that here, and the few times the characters express their feelings seem forced. Likewise, a subplot connecting the mother's risky sexual behavior with her avid interest in collecting documents about slavery never comes alive, and an alert reader will figure out the mystery of her killing in the early chapters.

The beginnings of a real story told through character development arise when Sam spends time with his best friend, Abel, or his stepfather, Joe. But Teasley fails to do much with those promising segments. The book never develops beyond its interesting premise, and that's unfortunate, as there's clearly potential here for much more. As it stands, 'Heat Signature' is one of those books that simply won't haunt." Reviewed by Claire Davis, a novelist and co-editor of the anthology "Kiss Tomorrow Hello: Notes From the Mid-life Underground", Washington Post Book World (Copyright 2006 Washington Post Book World Service/Washington Post Writers Group)
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"[Teasley] transcends the psychological thriller genre with sensitively drawn characters and a literary sensibility....Sam's resilience is oddly inspiring, and the lack of closure to his struggles makes this narrative even more poignant, affecting and true." Los Angeles Times

"Lisa Teasley skillfully mixes genres from road novel to murder mystery to, yes, sexy read. But her mastery of language and character makes Heat Signature rise above the constraints of a genre novel and into the realm of literature." San Francisco Chronicle

"Teasley deftly guides [her characters] to an emotionally fraught climax, guilelessly delineating [their] suffering through unadorned, unapologetic candor and a simplistic fervor for redemption and justice." Booklist

"In a prose that almost glistens on the page, Heat Signature describes parabolas of loss and recovery, both satisfying a reader's appetite for consolation and coherence, and, curiously, whetting it anew. Teasley writes with brio, heart, and (yes) heat, too." Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked and Son of a Witch

"Lisa Teasley's Heat Signature is a five alarm fire. Sensual and dangerous, her work burns through the imagination and leaves an indelible trace." Holiday Reinhorn, author of Big Cats

"Heat Signature is a nearly feral novel, in a good way: it's wild and wide-eyed, at the same time, shaggy and yet in places gleaming like fired coal." Susan Straight, author of Highwire Moon

"Raw emotion and tough truths fuel Lisa Teasley's compelling new novel, Heat Signature. Complex, troubled characters breathe on these pages, brought to life through Teasley's fine control of language and her brave, distinctive voice. This writer has an amazing gift for telling all the ways a human heart can break, and also mend." Samantha Dunn, author of Faith in Carlos Gomez and Not By Accident: Reconstructing a Careless Life

"Lisa Teasley has fashioned an extraordinary literary suspense novel: crisp, brutal and concise in tone, with engaging, wholly original characters." Joy Nicholson, author of The Tribes of Palos Verdes and The Road to Esmeralda

Part noir, part odyssey, Heat Signature mines the psychological and emotional landscape of loss as a son tries to cope with the murder of his mother while also exploring the complexities of family and friendship, love and loss, race and sexuality.

Lisa Teasley is the author of the award-winning story collection Glow in the Dark and a novel, Dive. She lives in Los Angeles.