Part of Lew Archer, book 16
First published 1996
Wildfire tears through the hills above a wealthy Southern California town. Private detective Lew Archer searches for a disappeared child who might be caught in a bitter divorce or taken by kidnappers with stranger motives. The flames reveal more than burned landscape. Archer finds murder among the ashes. He follows a chain of suspects whose reasons for violence prove as dangerous as spilled fuel. The missing child case pulls Archer deeper into the moral contradictions that poison California's promise of the good life. Each clue exposes another layer of guilt that spreads through families and across generations. Archer walks the thin line between legal crime and human weakness, serving as both detective and moral compass in a world where the two often blur.
Genres: mystery, crime, thriller, detective
Vibes: dark, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: detective, moral-compass
Setting: Southern California
Period: 20th-century
288 pages · Paperback · Vintage Crime/Black Lizard