Alex Delaware

A pool boy enters a secluded Bel Air property and discovers two bodies floating in the bright blue water: Gio Aggiunta, the playboy heir to an Italian shoe empire, and a gorgeous, even wealthier neighbor named Meagin March. A married neighbor. An illicit affair stoking rage is a perfect motive. But a “double” in this neighborhood of gated estates isn’t something you see every day. The house is untouched. No forced entry, no forensic evidence. The case has “that feeling,” and when that happens, Milo turns to his friend, the brilliant psychologist Alex Delaware.

In the middle of the night, Detective Lieutenant Milo Sturgis is called to a Westside hospital. A young woman has been left dead at the entrance to the E.R. Milo soon identifies the victim as an aspiring actress, and evidence points him in the direction of a Hollywood misfit with an arrest record. Before they can arrest the suspect, however, he is found shot dead on his balcony. Milo calls brilliant psychologist Alex Delaware to help unpick the case. But as more bodies appear, linked only by the rifle used to kill them, the more complicated it becomes.

People come to Los Angeles to chase their dreams. Sometimes they find themselves cast into a nightmare. And sometimes, the most ardent dreamers turn out to be the most vicious monsters. The body of an aspiring actress is found dumped near a hospital emergency room. She’s been drugged and murdered and the motive for the callous crime remains maddeningly out of reach. Until, a prime suspect materializes. Another Hollywood hopeful. Only to be shot dead by a sniper using a weapon that turns out to have been catalogued in a previous murder. And another, before that.