by Robert Crais
Part of Elvis Cole and Joe Pike, book 5
First published 2000
Television star Jodie Taylor hires Los Angeles private investigator Elvis Cole for what appears to be a routine case. She wants him to locate her biological parents, who put her up for adoption thirty-six years earlier. Taylor claims she needs only basic medical history before he reports back to her. Cole travels to Louisiana expecting straightforward detective work. Instead, he discovers other parties are also hunting for Taylor's birth parents. Bodies start turning up. The investigation grows more dangerous as Cole realizes his client withheld crucial information from him. What began as a simple adoption search transforms into something far more sinister. Cole must navigate Louisiana's shadowy underworld while dodging people who will kill to keep certain secrets buried. The case forces him to question everything Taylor told him about her motives. As the violence escalates, Cole finds himself caught between his duty to his client and his need to survive a conspiracy that reaches deeper than he imagined.
Genres: suspense, mystery, crime, thriller, detective, action
Vibes: dark, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Louisiana, Los Angeles
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
320 pages · Paperback · Orion Paperbacks
Content warnings: violence