First published 2026
Detective Sergeant Stilwell watches his peaceful Catalina Island posting shatter when a midnight drug drop goes catastrophically wrong. Twenty-two miles of ocean separate his island from Los Angeles County's chaos, but danger has found its way across. An informant's tip leads Stilwell and his deputies to Airport in the Sky, where they intercept a plane delivering narcotics. The operation collapses when gunfire erupts and suspects flee into the mountain brush. An internal investigation sidelines Stilwell, but he refuses to abandon his pursuit of whoever brought deadly violence to his sanctuary. While confined to the sheriff's substation, he discovers an unclaimed backpack in the lost and found. The pack belonged to a woman who vanished during a hiking trip four years earlier, yet someone turned it in just two months ago. This puzzle leads Stilwell to LAPD's Open-Unsolved Unit and Detective Renée Ballard. Working from opposite sides of the channel, they uncover a criminal who enjoys mocking law enforcement. Stilwell risks his precarious career standing to follow a case that stretches far beyond his island's borders.
Genres: suspense, mystery, crime, thriller, detective, action
Vibes: fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: amateur-detective, investigation, police-procedural
Setting: Airport in the Sky, Catalina Island, Los Angeles County
Period: Contemporary
335 pages · Kindle Edition · Little, Brown and Company
Content warnings: violence