First published 1995
A Boston police detective's young wife Lisa St. Claire vanishes without warning. Desperate, he turns to private investigator Spenser for help. Spenser traces Lisa from a New England college campus to the sports clubs of Los Angeles, uncovering her troubled past of prostitution and drug abuse. The trail leads to her dangerous ex-lover, a sociopathic man who holds her captive in a decaying tenement building in a ruined Massachusetts mill town. Spenser partners with a Chicano gunman who lives by a strict code of honor. Together they devise an elaborate rescue plan that forces them to navigate corrupt police officers and local power brokers who rule their territories like kings. As the operation unfolds, Spenser confronts hard questions about love, masculinity, and what justice really means.
Genres: mystery, crime, thriller, detective, action
Vibes: fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-allies, rescue
Setting: Boston, Los Angeles, Massachusetts
Period: Contemporary
325 pages · Tankobon Hardcover · Hayakawa Novels
Content warnings: violence