Part of Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus, book 2
First published 1999
Peter Decker planned a quiet camping vacation with Rina's sons, Sammy and Jake. The Los Angeles homicide detective needed a break from his demanding work. Then Sammy discovers something horrible in the wilderness: two human skeletons, burned beyond recognition. A forensic dentist identifies the remains as teenage girls. Decker cannot walk away from this case. As the father of a sixteen-year-old daughter, the murders hit too close to home. He throws himself into the investigation with professional skill and personal urgency. The case pulls him into the dangerous world of Hollywood Boulevard's crack dens. He must navigate the nightmare landscape of street children and drug addiction. Decker finds himself uncomfortably close to a world where vulnerable kids disappear without a trace. The investigation becomes more than police work for him. It becomes a deeply personal quest to understand how these young lives ended in such violence.
Genres: mystery, crime, thriller, detective
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: personal-quest, small-town
Setting: Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles
Period: contemporary
374 pages · Mass Market Paperback · Avon
Content warnings: death, graphic-violence, murder