by Dell Shannon
Part of Lieutenant Luis Mendoza, book 11
First published 1980
The LAPD homicide department enjoys a rare quiet spell until three deaths shatter the calm. A police officer dies in a hit-and-run. A young woman's apparent suicide raises questions. An elderly woman collapses from what seems like a heart attack in her cluttered secondhand shop. Lieutenant Luis Mendoza takes the cases, and the shop death draws him to the Celtic Hotel. There the investigation spirals into confusion and danger. What appeared straightforward becomes a maze of deception. The hotel harbors secrets that turn deadly. Mendoza must navigate through lies and misdirection where nothing is as it seems. Each clue leads deeper into a web of murder disguised as coincidence. The detective discovers that someone orchestrated these deaths with lethal precision.
Genres: mystery, crime, thriller, detective
Vibes: suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: deception, investigation
Setting: LAPD, Celtic Hotel
Period: 20th-century
254 pages · Hardcover · Gollancz