THE SCIENTIST AND THE SERIAL KILLER
(Random House)— Click any link to order.

THE SCIENTIST AND THE SERIAL KILLER is the gripping, upside-down detective story of a Texas forensic anthropologist named Sharon Derrick who, determined to close the cases of the notorious 1970s Houston-area serial killer Dean Corll, has painstakingly deployed the latest science to identify victims who had become known as the Lost Boys of Houston. This unforgettable narrative of forensic science, missing persons, and unsolved crimes by award-winning investigative journalist Lise Olsen is published by Random House, an imprint and a division of Penguin Random House LLC.

Praise

"The Scientist and the Serial Killer is a sort of forensic thriller, with shades of conspiracy and cover-up. In telling the story of Dr. Sharon Derrick, the forensic anthropologist who devoted years of her life sifting through bones, studying DNA analysis and consulting with victims' families, Olsen focuses on the hero, not the villain," —The Houston Chronicle.

"The Scientist and the Serial Killer is a masterwork of crime writing. Lise Olsen has taken a 50-year-old story and made it new and fresh and terrifyingly real... this is a must read. Her brilliantly organized pages turn themselves," —S.C. Gwynne, Author of Empire of the Summer Moon and Rebel Yell.

"TheScientist and the Serial Killer, is a brilliant work of reporting and writing, as author Lise Olsen takes readers on a dark voyage into a mass murder that has haunted Houston for decades. —Mimi Swartz, author of Ticker

"The once forgotten murder victims of a Houston serial killer are lost no more, their stories brought achingly to life in an act of redemptive recognition that is both haunting and heartbreaking."—Ellen McGarrahan, author of Two Truths and a Lie

"Lise Olsen is not only a masterful investigative reporter, she's one hell of a storyteller." —Skip Hollandsworth, The Midnight Assassin

Lise Olsen is a senior investigative reporter and editor whose work has appeared in the Texas Observer, Inside Climate News, and the Houston Chronicle, as well as in documentaries on Netflix, CNN, A&E, and Paramount+.

Her latest book, THE SCIENTIST AND THE SERIAL KILLER (Random House, April 2025), is a USA Today Bestseller.

THE SCIENTIST AND THE SERIAL KILLER was a finalist for the CLUE Awards' True Crime Book of the Year at CrimeCon 2025.

Audio book preview. Listen here

Watch a report on this book on ABC 13: New revelations...

KXAN - Austin: issue of lost identity...

Dateline NBC Podcast: listen

Follow Lise on:

For more information, email the author: liseolseninvestigates@gmail.com
Or Rachel Parker, Publicity, Random House: rparker@randomhouse.com.