Maggie Hopeis offto Californiato solve a crime that hits too close to home-and to confront the very evil she thought she had left behind in Europe-as the acclaimed World War II mystery series from New York Times bestselling author Susan Elia MacNeal continues.

A swift, vibrant novel that peels back the asbestos curtain on the complex history of Los Angeles, home to heroes and villains. -Steph Cha, author of Your House Will Pay

Los Angeles, 1943.As the Allies beat back the Nazis in the Mediterranean and the United States military slowly closes in on Tokyo, Walt Disney cranks out wartime propagandaand the Cocoanut Grove is alive with jazz and swing every night. But behind this sunny fa ade lies a darker reality. Up in the lush foothills of Hollywood, a woman floats lifeless in the pool of one of California’s trendiest hotels.

WhenAmerican-born secret agent and British spyMaggie Hope learns that this womanwas engaged to her former fiancee, John Sterling,and that he suspects her death was no accident, intuition tells her he’s right. Leaving London under siege is a lot to ask-but John was once the love of Maggie’s life … and she can’t say no.

Maggie struggles with seeing her lost love again, but more shocking is the realization that her country is as divided and convulsed with hatred as Europe. The Zoot Suit Riots loom large in Los Angeles, and the Ku Klux Klan casts a long shadow everywhere. But there is little time to dwell on memories once she starts digging into the case. As she traces a web of deception from the infamous Garden of Allah to the iconic Carthay Circle Theater, she discovers things aren’t always the way things appear in the movies-and the political situation in America is more complicated, and dangerous, than the newsreels would have them all believe.