Michael Brandman

"The woman on the bed was barely out of her teens. She wasn't exactly beautiful, but she'd tried to make the most of her looks. And now, alone in a seedy beachfront motel, she was dead. Paradise Police Chief Jesse Stone doesn't know her name. Whoever she is, she didn't deserve to die. Jesse starts digging, only to find himself caught in the crosshairs of a bitter turf war between two ruthless pimps. And more blood will spill before it's over"--

When legendary sheriff Burton Steel summons his son Buddy home from LAPD Homicide, a reluctant Buddy agrees. Burton is debilitated by ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease. While Buddy is to cover his back, not an assignment he wants, the clincher is it's his last chance to connect with his proud, overbearing parent. What Buddy doesn't expect is to encounter crime in Freedom, a privileged coastal community a hundred miles north of Los Angeles, as vicious and...

Introducing Buddy Steel, LAPD homicide detective whose father, Burton Steel, sheriff in the town of Freedom, a nearby privileged community falls ill with Lou Gehrig's disease. Returning home, Buddy learns that a world-renowed broadcast minister's wife has gone missing. Following leads, Buddy finds a link to complex web of twisted families, con artists, corrupt public officials, violent enforcers, and a femme fatale.