Outside the Wire: A Pacific Homicide Novel

In Smiley’s engrossing sequel to 2016’s Pacific Homicide, LAPD Det. Davie Richards and her partner, Det. Jason Vaughn, look into the shooting murder of security consultant Zeke Woodrow, a retired Army Ranger whose body was found in an airport parking garage. When Richards and Vaughn go to search the house Woodrow was renting in Topanga Canyon, they find it cleaned out. This is news to the real estate agent in charge of the property. When the officers interview Woodrow’s grown daughter, she tells them that he owned property in Santa Barbara and Santa Monica, which suggests he had more money than the usual recent military retiree. Woodrow’s ex-wife later points them to three of his Ranger buddies from Vietnam, with whom he remained close. A suspicious death, another murder, and an attempted killing raise the stakes as the investigation shifts from L.A. to the Mojave Desert and beyond. Richards, who’s battling PTSD from a justified shooting, makes a dogged and determined heroine as she roots out cause and killer. Readers will want to see a lot more of her.[em](Nov.) [/em]