Part of Dismas Hardy, book 18
First published 2019
Dismas Hardy notices his trusted secretary Phyllis acting strangely. She disappears from the office without explanation, worrying Hardy especially after he discovers her brother just got out of prison after twenty-five years for armed robbery and attempted murder. The situation explodes when police arrest Phyllis at work, charging her as an accessory to murder. The victim is Hector Valdez, a human trafficker who smuggled women from El Salvador and Mexico into the United States. Someone shot Valdez dead on the same day Phyllis first vanished from work. Hardy cannot see how Phyllis connects to her ex-convict brother and a dead coyote, but he must unravel the mystery quickly. His longtime colleague's freedom depends on Hardy piecing together a puzzle that makes no sense. The attorney faces a race against time to save someone he trusts from a crime that seems impossible for her to have committed.
Genres: suspense, mystery, crime, legal-thriller
Vibes: fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: race-against-time, unreliable-narrator
324 pages · Hardcover · Atria Books
Content warnings: murder, trafficking, violence