The most enduring detectives in American crime fiction are back in this electrifying thriller of art and brutality from the #1 New York Times bestselling master of suspense.
Los
Angeles is a city of stark contrast, the palaces of the affluent
coexisting uneasily with the hellholes of the mad and the needy. That
shadow world and the violence it breeds draw brilliant psychologist Dr.
Alex Delaware and Detective Milo Sturgis into an unsettling case of
altruism gone wrong.
On a superficially lovely morning, a woman
shows up for work with her usual enthusiasm. She’s the newly hired
personal assistant to a handsome, wealthy photographer and is ready to
greet her boss with coffee and good cheer. Instead, she finds him
slumped in bed, shot to death.
The victim had recently received
rave media attention for his latest project: images of homeless people
in their personal “dream” situations, elaborately costumed and enacting
unfulfilled fantasies. There are some, however, who view the whole thing
as nothing more than crass exploitation, citing token payments and the
victim’s avoidance of any long-term relationships with his subjects.
Has disgruntlement blossomed into homicidal rage? Or do the roots of
violence reach down to the victim’s family—a clan, sired by an elusive
billionaire, that is bizarre in its own right?
Then new murders
arise, and Alex and Milo begin peeling back layer after layer of
intrigue and complexity, culminating in one of the deadliest threats
they’ve ever faced.