Rachel Chavez, a tough but vulnerable recovering alcoholic who owns—and lives in—an LA parking garage, discovers two unconscious boys in a van. She rushes them to the emergency room and is told one is dead. The other is admitted for treatment. But the next day, the hospital has no record of either child.
Racing to find the answer in time, Rachel gets help from her best friend, a Whoopi Goldberg sort, as well as a cell-phone-toting homeless woman.
Booklist calls Rachel “one of the most refreshing new ... heroines
to wander into the crime genre ....”
Orange County (California) Metro Magazine: “Rudolph has a talent for creating likeable characters... (and) is particularly adept at crafting scenes of breathless action and situations of barely bearable suspense.”
Penny Rudolph has worked as a bartender, truck driver, chile picker, science writer, and medical writer. She’s taught high school and college, English, creative writing and journalism. Her mystery/thriller Thicker than Blood, a 21st century take on Chinatown—is a tale of a woman caught in the crossfire of California water politics. The sequel, Lifeblood, and Rudolph’s historical mystery/thriller Listen to the Mockingbird, set in New Mexico during the Civil War, are 2007 releases.
