A hardboiled valentine to the Golden State, That Left Turn at Albuquerque marks the return of noir master Scott Phillips.

Douglas Rigby, attorney-at-law, is bankrupt. He’s just sunk his last $200,000-a clandestine loan from his last remaining client, former bigshot TV exec Glenn Haskill-into a cocaine deal gone wrong. The lesson? Never trust anyone else with the dirty work. Desperate to get back on top, Rigby formulates an art forgery scheme involving one of Glenn’s priceless paintings, a victimless crime. But for Rigby to pull this one off, he’ll need to negotiate a whole cast of players with their own agendas, including his wife, his girlfriend, an embittered art forger, Glenn’s resentful nurse, and the man’s money-hungry nephew. One misstep, and it all falls apart-will he be able to save his skin?

Written with hard-knock sensibility and wicked humor, Scott Phillips’s newest novel will cement him as one of the great crime writers of the 21st century.