In late-1940s Los Angeles, former spies Evelyn Bishop and Nick Gallagher dig into shady real estate dealings, murder, and the appalling aftereffects of WWII-era Japanese American internment in this intrigue-filled historical mystery for readers of Allison Montclair, Jacqueline Winspear, Ashley Weaver, and Susan Elia MacNeal.
Now president of her father’s company, Bishop Aeronautics, Evelyn is presiding over a groundbreaking ceremony for the expansion of her factory when she is approached by Billy Takemura, a Japanese American soldier who announces that she’s building on stolen land.
Like Evelyn and Nick, Billy is a war hero. He served in the decorated 442nd Nisei company, while most of his family were forcibly interned at Manzanar. Their thriving family restaurant, and the land it occupied, were taken while they were in the camp.
Determined to right this wrong—and concerned about her father’s possible involvement in profiteering—Evelyn enlists Nick in her investigation. What starts as a discovery of widespread fraud quickly graduates to murder. Suspects range from an unscrupulous business partner to a bitter widow to Billy’s hotheaded brother. It’s up to Evelyn and Nick to expose the truth. However, it’s not easy when Evelyn is fending off betrayal in her own company and Nick’s brutal childhood returns to haunt him.
Nothing is as it seems as secrets threaten to destroy the life they have worked so hard to build . . .
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