Part of Alex Delaware, book 21
First published 2007
Dr. Alex Delaware treated Tanya Bigelow for obsessive-compulsive disorder when she was a child. Now nineteen, Tanya returns with a disturbing request. Her aunt Patty, who raised her, has confessed to murder on her deathbed and urged Tanya to seek Delaware's help. Delaware remembers Patty as a dedicated emergency room nurse who struggled to raise Tanya alone. The confession seems impossible. But Tanya needs answers. Delaware calls in LAPD detective Milo Sturgis to help investigate a crime that may never have happened. They have almost nothing to work with. Their search takes them from Los Angeles's seediest neighborhoods to expensive mansions. They trace Patty and Tanya's restless life from place to place. The trail leads to a heroin addict, a sleazy real estate broker, and a mysterious physics student. Then a fresh murder explodes their investigation. The new crime opens a dark passage into the past where deadly secrets lie buried. Delaware and Sturgis discover a twisted history of desperation and revenge that reaches across years.
Genres: suspense, mystery, crime, psychological-thriller
Vibes: dark, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: amateur-sleuth, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Los Angeles
Period: Contemporary
347 pages · Hardcover · Ballantine Books
Content warnings: mental-illness, murder