THE LAS PLAYAS SERIES
Las Playas, California, looks great on a postcard. The mayor will tell you all about the charming pier, the whale-watching charters, and the little shops on Main Street. He won’t mention the fog, the great whites cruising past the surf break, or the rents pricing out everyone who actually lives and works there.
Somewhere between the tourist brochure and the truth, above a tired little strip mall on Estero Row, two women run a business that doesn’t quite have a name. They aren’t cops. They aren’t licensed private investigators. They don’t solve murders. They find people: missing relatives, runaway debtors, folks who don’t want to be found and folks who desperately do. It isn’t about who deserves to be found, or who makes them the most money, or who the media care about most. At the end of the day, the cases they take are about people, and if they get paid in tamales again, well, at least the freezer is full.
It should be a simple job. Find the person, get paid, go home. But in Las Playas the clients lie, the jobs go sideways, and the system that is supposed to protect people has a habit of failing the ones who need it the most. So when the rules don’t work, Gamble and Dez work around them.
Each book is a standalone case: a twisty, funny, sometimes dangerous hunt with real stakes and nonstop banter. Expect sharp edges, soft centers, a found family of neighborhood oddballs, karaoke-night noise complaints, and a love story that’s frankly a little distracting for two people who are supposed to be working.
