Psychologist Alex Delaware and Detective Milo Sturgis, the most beloved duo in American crime fiction, return in this electric thriller from the #1 New York Times bestselling “master of suspense” (Los Angeles Times).

In Los Angeles, the law is anything other than an open-and-shut matter. There are those who think it's flexible, and those who strive to enforce it above all else.

A young woman is found dead at her kitchen table and the DNA on the cigarette butts in the ashtray in front of her belongs to her ex-boyfriend, who has a record. This is a case Milo and Alex call open and shut, but the guy has an airtight alibi. Could an enemy from his shady past have framed him?

Miles away, a former LAPD officer is found brutally murdered in her garage. Her coworkers knew her as a meticulously organized detective, but her house is a hoarder’s den, full of trash and meaningless objects—except for the envelopes full of cash stashed beneath the piles of garbage. As Alex and Milo dig deeper into the seemingly unrelated crimes, they discover shocking links between the victims and realize they have a complicated—and deadly—puzzle to solve.

Published
February 3, 2026
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Alex Delaware

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Alex Delaware is a child psychologist. The series is set in Los Angeles.

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