April 1, 2019
San Francisco PI Leland Crowe, the narrator of this page-turner from Moore (The Night Market), investigates the alleged suicide of the only daughter of one of California’s wealthiest women. When Claire Gravesend, a student attending Harvard University, is found dead on top of a Rolls Royce and wearing a black cocktail dress in the city’s seedy Tenderloin neighborhood, the coroner quickly deems the death a suicide—but Claire’s mother wants more information and enlists Crowe’s help. After fending off an attacker while searching Claire’s residence in Boston, Crowe connects the pieces—which include horrific scars on Claire’s back from her childhood, the mysterious origins of her birth, and her interest in stem cell research—to uncover a conspiracy that those involved are willing to murder to keep hidden. Though the disgraced and divorced Crowe is largely a genre cliché, a well-crafted plot, relentless pacing, and the highly satisfying conclusion more than compensate. Equal parts mystery and thriller, this standalone is a winner. Agent: Alice Martell, Martell Agency.
April 15, 2019
A San Francisco PI gets much more than he bargains for when he's asked to investigate the suspicious death of a wealthy young woman. Ex-attorney-turned-private investigator Lee Crowe hasn't lacked for jobs in the six years since he was disbarred for beating the stuffing out of his now ex-wife's lover, a California Supreme Court associate justice. In fact, most of his jobs in his early days as a PI came from his ex-boss attorney Jim Gardner, who likely has a finger in plenty of the city's dirtiest deeds. When Crowe happens upon the body of a beautiful young woman on the caved-in roof of a Rolls Royce Wraith parked in front of the decidedly down-market Refugio Apartments, he can't resist snapping photos for a quick tabloid sale. Jim spots the photo and offers Crowe another job. The dead woman is 20-year-old Claire Gravesend, and her mother, the wealthy and influential Olivia Gravesend, doesn't believe Claire committed suicide. Crowe has Olivia's considerable resources to back up his investigation, and he'll need them. He flies to Boston to examine Claire's home, where he has a violent encounter with a knife-wielding intruder. Shaken, he returns to San Francisco, where he discovers that Claire's secret pied-à-terre is hiding something even stranger: a woman in Claire's bed who looks just like Claire and shares the strange circular scars on her spine that appeared on Claire's autopsy photos. Shocked but undeterred and not afraid to get his hands dirty, Crowe seeks answers from Olivia's mother and Claire's doppelgänger in a case that's shaping up to be stranger than fiction. Moore's rough-and-tumble PI operates firmly in varying shades of gray; the author delivers enough action and atmosphere to satisfy readers who like their gumshoes old-school while having a lot to say about humankind's hubris and preoccupation with eternal youth. The mastermind behind Claire's death is truly vile, and the disturbing finale will linger. Luckily, Moore sets things up for a sequel. Gritty neo-noir with an all-too-plausible speculative twist.
COPYRIGHT(2019) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Starred review from May 1, 2019
Six years after being divorced and disbarred, Lee Crowe owes much of his livelihood to Jim Gardner, a high-powered attorney who both hired and fired Crowe before steering him into becoming a PI. Gardner now pushes work Crowe's way, knowing the PI will bend rules as necessary. Crowe is just finishing a job that required his living for weeks in San Francisco's Tenderloin district when he finds a dead woman on the roof of a Rolls-Royce. The victim turns out to be Claire Gravesend, only child of wealthy and powerful Olivia Gravesend, widely known as the Iron Bitch, who hires Crowe to investigate her daughter's death, which she doesn't believe was a suicide. In looking into Claire's activities, Crowe finds Madeleine Adair, who is more than just Claire's doppelg�nger: she has identical DNA, despite being three years older. Following the convoluted trail, Crowe soon finds himself on a deadly chase for a man even more powerful than Gardner and whose ethics are even shadier. This is perhaps less terrifying than Moore's loosely linked San Francisco triptych, which concluded with The Night Market (2018), but it's just as suspenseful and skillfully plotted. Noir fans who don't know Moore have some catching up to do.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)
April 15, 2019
A San Francisco PI gets much more than he bargains for when he's asked to investigate the suspicious death of a wealthy young woman. Ex-attorney-turned-private investigator Lee Crowe hasn't lacked for jobs in the six years since he was disbarred for beating the stuffing out of his now ex-wife's lover, a California Supreme Court associate justice. In fact, most of his jobs in his early days as a PI came from his ex-boss attorney Jim Gardner, who likely has a finger in plenty of the city's dirtiest deeds. When Crowe happens upon the body of a beautiful young woman on the caved-in roof of a Rolls Royce Wraith parked in front of the decidedly down-market Refugio Apartments, he can't resist snapping photos for a quick tabloid sale. Jim spots the photo and offers Crowe another job. The dead woman is 20-year-old Claire Gravesend, and her mother, the wealthy and influential Olivia Gravesend, doesn't believe Claire committed suicide. Crowe has Olivia's considerable resources to back up his investigation, and he'll need them. He flies to Boston to examine Claire's home, where he has a violent encounter with a knife-wielding intruder. Shaken, he returns to San Francisco, where he discovers that Claire's secret pied-�-terre is hiding something even stranger: a woman in Claire's bed who looks just like Claire and shares the strange circular scars on her spine that appeared on Claire's autopsy photos. Shocked but undeterred and not afraid to get his hands dirty, Crowe seeks answers from Olivia's mother and Claire's doppelg�nger in a case that's shaping up to be stranger than fiction. Moore's rough-and-tumble PI operates firmly in varying shades of gray; the author delivers enough action and atmosphere to satisfy readers who like their gumshoes old-school while having a lot to say about humankind's hubris and preoccupation with eternal youth. The mastermind behind Claire's death is truly vile, and the disturbing finale will linger. Luckily, Moore sets things up for a sequel. Gritty neo-noir with an all-too-plausible speculative twist.
COPYRIGHT(2019) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.