First published 2009
Webster Fillmore Goodhue lost his teaching job after a tragedy left his life in pieces. Now he works for Clean Team, scrubbing blood and worse from Los Angeles crime scenes. The pay is decent and the work keeps him busy. One day Web arrives at a Malibu house where a man has blown his brains across a bathroom mirror. While cleaning up the mess, he meets the suicide victim's daughter. She's beautiful and grieving, and Web finds himself drawn to her. When she asks him for help with something dangerous, every instinct tells him to walk away. Instead, he drives the Harbor Freeway at midnight to meet her. The favor she needs connects to something Web cleaned up at a Carson motel. Soon armed men start appearing at his door. A war is brewing between competing trauma cleaning crews. Web doesn't understand what he's stumbled into, but people want to hurt him badly. He needs answers fast or he'll end up as someone else's cleanup job.
Genres: suspense, mystery, crime, thriller
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
Setting: Los Angeles, Malibu, Carson
Period: 21st-century
319 pages · Hardcover · Ballantine Books
Content warnings: death