The first in a series of throwback crime novels, inspired by the Phillip Marlowe's and Sam Spades of the author's youth, Michael Devlin, the jaded protagonist and private detective of South On Pacific Coast Highway is himself a throwback private detective, preferring brains over gadgetry as he operates a one-man shop out of the sleepy little beach town of Laurel Lagoon. Slumming his way among the sometimes seedy, sometimes tony but always alluring venues of the Southern California coastline, Michael doggedly attempts to solve four murders, free a wrongly imprisoned friend and wrest spiritual...