by Robert Crais
Part of Elvis Cole and Joe Pike, book 8
First published 1999
Elvis Cole gets pulled into his most personal case when Joe Pike receives a desperate call from Frank Garcia, a powerful businessman whose daughter Karen once dated Pike. Garcia wants the detective duo to find his missing daughter, but the LAPD finds her first. Karen Garcia lies dead in a city park with a bullet wound to the head. Cole and Pike continue investigating the murder, determined to find her killer. Then a second body turns up, and the evidence points directly at Pike. The police eagerly pursue Pike as their prime suspect, ready to use his troubled history against him. Cole fights to clear his partner's name, but his investigation uncovers secrets that run deeper than either detective expected. As the case spirals beyond a simple murder inquiry, Cole must navigate police corruption and hidden connections that threaten to destroy Pike. The wise cracking detective finds himself questioning everything he thought he knew as he races to save his partner from a conspiracy that reaches into the highest levels of Los Angeles power.
Genres: mystery, crime, thriller, detective, action
Vibes: dark, emotional, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: LAPD, Los Angeles
400 pages · Hardcover · Doubleday Books
Content warnings: violence