NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - The past comes back to haunt
psychologist Alex Delaware and Detective Milo Sturgis when they
investigate a grisly double homicide and uncover an even more
unspeakable motive in this riveting thriller from the bestselling master
of suspense.
Los Angeles is a city of sunlight, celebrity, and possibility. The L.A.
often experienced by Homicide Lt. Detective Milo Sturgis and
psychologist Alex Delaware, is a city of the dead.
Early one morning, the two of them find themselves in a neighborhood of
pretty houses, pretty cars, and pretty people. The scene they encounter
is anything but. A naked young man lies dead in the street, the apparent
victim of a collision with a moving van hurtling through suburbia in the
darkness. But any thoughts of accidental death vanish when a blood trail
leads to a nearby home.
Inside, a young woman lies butchered. The identity of the male victim
and his role in the horror remain elusive, but that of the woman creates
additional questions. And adding to the shock, Alex has met her while
working a convoluted child custody case. Cordelia Gannett was a
self-styled internet influencer who'd gotten into legal troubles by
palming herself off as a psychologist. Even after promising to desist,
she's found a loophole and has continued her online career, aiming to
amass clicks and ads by cyber-coaching and cyber-counseling people
plagued with relationship issues.
But upon closer examination, Alex and Milo discover that her own
relationships are troublesome, including a tortured family history and a
dubious personal past. Has that come back to haunt her in the worst way?
Is the mystery man out in the street collateral damage or will he turn
out to be the key to solving a grisly double homicide? As the
psychologist and the detective explore L.A.'s meanest streets, they peel
back layer after layer of secrets and encounter a savage,
psychologically twisted, almost unthinkable motive for violence and
bloodshed.
This is classic Delaware: Alex, a man Milo has come to see as
irreplaceable, at his most insightful and brilliant.
