In the vein of the bestselling California noirs of Sue Grafton and Sara Gran, a whodunnit about loyalty, love, and the legacy of trauma featuring a hardboiled, queer private eye whose latest case takes her deep into her own complicated past.
On the cusp of forty, Justine Bailen, better known as Jo, works for an all-female detective agency based in Tucson, Arizona. While staking out a cheating spouse, she learns that her long-estranged best friend from childhood, Rose, is missing, and that Roseâs mother wants to hire Jo to find her. This case is all kinds of wrong for Jo, but she has no choice but to head back to her hometown, an hour north and a world away from Tucson.
Back in Delphi, she learns that her high school boyfriend, Tylerâwho is probably part of the reason her friendship with Rose went southâis the cop assigned to the case. It doesnât take long for Jo to realize that heâs all mixed up in it, too. To have any hope of learning the truth about Roseâs disappearance, Jo must finally face the demons she thought sheâd escaped.