First published 2004
A young woman arrives at a Los Angeles boarding house and immediately falls into a deep, unnatural sleep. No one knows her identity. When newspapers report the strange case, three different people step forward with claims. Each insists the sleeping woman belongs to them, each with a different story about who she really is. One says she's an heiress. Another claims she's a starlet. A third believes she's a religious mystic. Matt Cuneen reads about the bizarre situation and finds himself drawn into the puzzle. He decides to conduct his own investigation into the identity of this modern sleeping beauty. As Matt digs deeper, the mystery grows more complex. The competing claims don't add up. Someone is lying, but determining the truth means unraveling layers of deception surrounding a woman who cannot speak for herself.
Genres: suspense, mystery, thriller
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: mystery, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Los Angeles
Period: 20th-century
224 pages · Hardcover · Black Dagger Crime