Blood Relations

A California heiress's death leads a PI into her powerful family's unsettling secrets in a "gritty neo-noir with an all-too-plausible speculative twist" ( Publishers Weekly). Who is Claire Gravesend? So wonders PI Lee Crowe when he finds her dead, in a cocktail dress, on top of a Rolls Royce, in the most dangerous neighborhood in San Francisco. Claire's mother, Olivia, is one of the richest people in California. She doesn't believe the coroner's ruling of suicide. Olivia hires Crowe, who—having just foiled a federal case against a cartel kingpin—is eager for distraction. But the questions about the Gravesend family pile up fast. First, Caire's autopsy reveals peculiar scars that Olivia won't explain. Then, Crowe encounters an armed intruder at Claire's Boston townhouse. And when he finds Claire's secret San Francisco pied-à-terre, his questions come to a head. Sleeping in an upstairs bedroom, he finds Claire—her face, her hair, her scars—and as far as he can tell, she's alive. And Crowe's back at the start: Who is Claire Gravesend? An Edgar Award Finalist