Hard-nosed beat cop Jill Smith combs Berkeley for a Buddhist guru-killing cultist
In Berkeley, California, Telegraph Avenue is the headquarters for the city s strangest inhabitants. Cultists, drug addicts, and hippie burnouts wander its streets, looking to raise their consciousness or, if that fails, to just get high. And Jill Smith walks with them, a beat cop with her finger on the pulse of one of the most unique neighborhoods in America.With time on her hands after her divorce, Jill lets a friend drag her to hear the district s hot new guru, a Buddhist holy man from Bhutan. As his...

Former medical examiner Kiernan O Shaughnessy investigates a scandalous suicide in a Catholic churchQuick-witted, precise, and comfortable with corpses, Kiernan O Shaughnessy was perfectly suited to life as a medical examiner. In her four years with the coroner s office, she never had one unhappy shift until the day they let her go. Enraged and adrift, she made her way to La Jolla, California, to set up a high-class private investigation service for medically suspicious deaths. She works only the cases she wants, and charges a steep enough fee that she can afford a cherry red Triumph and a...

To escape arrest for her best friend s murder, Vejay must find the real killer before it s too lateIn the small woodsy town of Henderson, California, the electric company is strict about sick days. So when meterreader Vejay Haskell decides to play hooky, her first concern is staying out of sight. She skirts around the edge of town, making her way to Frank s Place, a cozy saloon owned by her friend Frank Goulet. After two cups of hot buttered rum, they have an argument and she storms out into the pouring rain. She goes home, takes a nap, and awakens sober, embarrassed, and ready to apologize....