Pacific Beat by T. Jefferson Parker

Parker's third thriller is a powerful, unforgettable story of murder and corruption told in prose as sparkling and tough as any devotee of the hard-boiled tradition could wish, a tale that fulfills all the promise of his smash debut, Laguna Heat. After a brief and unpleasant stay in a Mexican jail, ex-cop Jim Weir returns to Newport Beach, Calif., for a joyful reunion with his mother and his sister, Ann, both activists in a campaign to stop rapacious developers from destroying their city.