This blazingly original novel from the most exciting new voice in crime fiction today is a brilliantly crafted modern noir filled with secrets, heartbreak, and mordant humor.
Gloria Mendez is single and 36, and secretly and somewhat hopelessly in love with her oblivious boss. He is both single and solitary, and far too old for her, but she has worked for him, side by side, for 10 oddly companionable years.
John Wayne O'Grady, filled with anger and self-righteousness, enters a Family Value restaurant, pulls out a shotgun, and tells the customers and employees that it is time for Family Value to pay its dues. Among those present is Freda, a nine-year-old girl oblivious to the gunman, who stands at the counter demanding the Wild West sticker that she should have gotten with her Noonburger.
