Line of darkness

Unlicensed San Francisco PI Colleen Hayes is a convicted felon with a keen sense of justice. She finally has an office and an apartment. She has reconnected with her daughter, Pamela, who is pregnant, and she is working on a relationship with boyfriend Dwight, an SFPD detective. When Ingrid Richter, a German bank executive in town for a conference, asks Colleen to locate her nephew, Eric Hahn, and pays handsomely up front, she can't say no. The case seems straightforward, and Colleen has no trouble tracking Eric to a seedy hotel south of Market Street; then things change fast. It seems that Eric Hahn is an alias for an operative in Black Cross, a group of Nazi hunters seeking revenge for war crimes. A white-supremacy gang is chasing Black Cross, and the trail leads to Rome and the Vatican. Colleen no longer knows whom to trust and hopes to survive while trying to solve the puzzle. This action-packed, intricately plotted story, starring a strong, independent sleuth, is a real page-turner.

Set in 1979 San Francisco, Tomlinson's impressive fourth mystery featuring unlicensed PI and ex-con Colleen Hayes (after 2021's Bad Scene) hands his plausibly imperfect lead a well-heeled client. Ingrid Richter, a v-p at a Swiss bank who's in town for a conference, hires Hayes to find her 42-year-old nephew, Erich Hahn. Hahn, who is "what they call 'manic-depressive,' " called his aunt from the airport when he arrived in the city, but never showed for a planned dinner. Hayes manages to track Hahn to a seedy hotel, where she breaks into his room, only to discover a gun and an envelope containing "a Nazi ID card that appeared to be vintage." The gun and ID card make her suspicious of her client and question Richter's real motives for wanting her purported nephew found. Hayes later learns that Hahn flew to San Francisco from Buenos Aires, where a German ex-pat was murdered at the time he was there. More surprises follow en route to the satisfying climax. Fans of feisty, flawed leads will want to see more of Hayes. Agent: Evan Marshall, Evan Marshall Agency. (Aug.)