Part of Alex Delaware, book 23
First published 2008
Detective Milo Sturgis receives a disturbing anonymous call about something "real dead" buried in the marsh. When a young woman's corpse appears in LA's Bird Marsh preserve, followed by more skeletal remains, Sturgis calls in psychologist Alex Delaware to help track a serial killer. The victims are prostitutes, but one stands out. Selena Bass was a talented musician from the East Coast, hired to tutor a musical prodigy for a wealthy family. Her employers have vanished, leaving behind only a nervous caretaker with secrets. As Sturgis and Delaware dig deeper, they uncover disturbing details about the crimes and the people involved. The killer appears to follow a pattern until a new murder breaks the mold. This forces the investigators to reconsider their assumptions about the perpetrator's motives. The case leads them through LA's dark underbelly, where the most twisted desires drive the most calculating minds.
Genres: mystery, crime, detective, psychological-thriller
Vibes: dark, emotional, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Bird Marsh, Los Angeles
Period: Contemporary
353 pages · Hardcover · Ballantine Books
Content warnings: murder, violence