Two dead bodies changed the course of my life that fall. One of them I knew and the other I'd never laid eyes on until I saw him in the morgue. The first was a local PI of suspect reputation. He'd been gunned down near the beach at Santa Teresa. It looked like a robbery gone bad. The other was on the beach six weeks later. He'd been sleeping rough. Probably homeless. No identification. A slip of paper with Millhone's name and number was in his pants...

When her honeymoon with new husband Dirk Coulter is interrupted by the discovery of a dead body on the beach, Savannah Reid does some investigating of her own when she discovers that the deceased is a popular Los Angeles anchorwoman.

"Private investigator Jessica Shaw is leading a quiet life in a Californian desert community, where she spends her days working low-level cases. But when a former resident asks Jessica to help her sister, Rue Hunter, a convicted murderer whose execution is days away, Jessica can't resist the offer. Rue doesn't remember what happened the night two high school students were killed thirty years ago, but everybody in town is certain she's guilty. As Jessica...