A trans detective working for the District Attorney's Office takes on the twisty, poignant cold case murder of a local trans woman, and her investigation unravels the threads of a mystery that's haunted her since she was a child: her mother's disappearance.
When Lieutenant Lauren Kelly is exiled to the newly created Homicide Cold Case Unit at the DA's office, she knows they're sticking her there as punishment, hoping she does nothing for the next two years until she hits twenty-five years on the force and can quietly retire. That way, no one can claim they discriminated against the only trans detective in Donn County.
With her ex-detective father declining with Alzheimer's, Lauren has a lot on her plate already-but with regards to the cold cases, she has other plans. She reopens the investigation into the death of Sherry Darling, a trans sex worker she went to high school with. As Lauren looks deeper into the events surrounding Sherry's murder, she uncovers evidence of a cover up with implications beyond anything she could have ever imagined . . . and she becomes more and more convinced that what happened to Sherry is somehow tied to why her own mother disappeared when she was a child.
This brand new investigation from the acclaimed author of the Erin McCabe series is a nesting doll of pulse-pounding mysteries that dig deep into bias, corruption, and local scandal. Praise for Robyn Gigl
"So good that it may end up counting among this year's standouts . . . A groundbreaking series is poised to become a definitive one."
-The New York Times Book Review
"Engrossing originality-and a brilliant point in a larger argument for the benefits of greater representation in our beloved genre."
-The Lambda Literary Review
"Stunning . . . [Gigl's] takes on big questions of justice, revenge, and the nature of victimhood will resonate with many."
-Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
"A compulsively riveting page-turner with a complex heroine, a captivating plot, and no easy answers. It's one of the best thrillers of the year."
-Mystery Scene
Robyn Gigl is the author of the Erin McCabe Legal Thrillers, which Lisa Gardner called a "don't miss" series. Robyn's previous critically acclaimed novels include Survivor's Guilt, which TIME Magazine named as one of the 100 Best Mystery & Thriller Books of All Time, was selected by The New York Times as one of the best crime novels of 2022, and won the Joseph Hansen Award for LGBTQ Crime Writing; By Way of Sorrow, which was selected by CrimeReads as one of the best crime novels of 2021; and Remain Silent, which was nominated for the Joseph Hansen Award. Robyn is a graduate of Stonehill College and Villanova University School of Law. Robyn lives in New Jersey, where she continues to practice law by day, and work on her next novel by night. Fortunately, she has a very boring social life.
