NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - 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.
