First published 2008
Dante Mancuso gets an early morning call that changes everything. Bill Owens, a private investigator like himself, has been arrested for a thirty year old murder. Back in the late sixties, Owens belonged to a radical political group that robbed banks and pulled pranks around San Francisco. During one heist, someone shot and killed an innocent bystander. Now the authorities want Owens for that death. Dante knows the streets of North Beach where he grew up. He has worked for shadowy security firms that operated on both sides of the law. But he came home to leave that life behind and work as a legitimate private investigator. To clear Owens, Dante must dig into San Francisco's radical underground from decades past. He needs to find the real killer, the person who controlled the group and gave the orders. As Dante retraces the original investigation, he discovers layers of deceit and betrayal. The boundary between seeking justice and taking revenge becomes dangerously thin.
Genres: historical-fiction, mystery, crime, thriller, action
Vibes: dark, emotional, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: amateur-sleuth, enemies-to-lovers, unreliable-narrator
Setting: North Beach, San Francisco
Period: 1960s, 1980s
304 pages · Hardcover · Minotaur Books
Content warnings: violence