Desolation Canyon: A Mystery

by P. J. Tracy

Overview

P.J. Tracy “seems to have found her literary sweet spot” (New York Times Book Review) with her dazzling new series, and in Desolation Canyon, fans get a deeper look into the complex characters who call Los Angeles home.

LAPD Detective Margaret Nolan is struggling to move forward after the death of her brother in Afghanistan and taking a life in the line of duty. Her stoic parents offer little support – they refuse to address anything difficult, and she’s afraid their relationship is eroding beyond the point of recovery.

The days off are the hardest, because they give Margaret time to think. A moment of weakness leads to cocktails with a colleague—an attraction she knows could be dangerous —at the luxurious Hotel Bel-Air bar. A stroll through the grounds leads to a grim discovery beneath the surface of Swan Lake: the body of a successful attorney who made his fortune in international trade.

It initially appears to be death by misadventure, but the case is anything but straightforward. As a series of shocking revelations emerge, Nolan finds herself confronting a sinister cabal that just might destroy her and everyone she loves.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250754950
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	01/18/2022
Series:	The Detective Margaret Nolan Series , #2
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	892,017
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 6.20(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

P. J. TRACY is the pseudonym of Traci Lambrecht, bestselling and award winning author of the Monkeewrench series. Lambrecht and her mother, P. J., wrote eight novels together as P. J. Tracy before P. J. passed away in 2016. Lambrecht has since continued the Monkeewrench series solo. She spent most of her childhood painting and showing Arabian horses, and graduated with a Russian Studies major from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. She now lives outside Minneapolis.

Editorial Reviews

★ 11/08/2021

Quirky, damaged characters drive bestseller Tracy’s outstanding sequel to 2021’s Deep into the Dark. LAPD Det. Margaret Nolan is still carrying guilt from a line-of-duty shooting. Afghan War vet Sam Easton’s PTSD is stirred when he hears rifle shots while jogging in Desolation Canyon near Death Valley. Nolan’s mother, grieving the combat death of her soldier son, goes on a spiritual retreat at the wilderness compound of the Children of the Desert. Father Paul, the sect’s charismatic leader, is so outraged that his consort, Marielle, has fled with their daughter that he recruits a cold-blooded killer—familiar with the preacher’s earlier criminal identity as Roger “Snake” Jackson—to help recover his “stolen property.” Meanwhile, Nolan’s investigation into a corpse dumped in the swan pond at the Hotel Bel-Air leads her to confront an ex-KGB crime boss and to ponder how the kidnapping of the murder victim’s son decades ago could have consequences today. All these plot elements come neatly together as the tension builds along with Father Paul’s drug-fueled paranoia. Tracy should win new fans with this vivid, twisty crime novel. Agent: Ellen Geiger, Frances Goldin Literary. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Desolation Canyon

“With Desolation Canyon, Tracy rises to the rarified level of Michael Connelly and David Baldacci. . . Tracy draws each scene with the skill of a brilliant artist and hits every note like a master maestro.” —Jon Land, Providence Sunday Journal

“Peak-excitement…Tracy’s plots are growing more intricate and her characters more layered.” —Twin Cities Pioneer Press

“With well-developed characters with flaws and faults of their own, this is a mystery with plenty to think about after the story is done, and the suspense plot is great too.” —The Parkersburg News and Sentinel

“Outstanding…Tracy should win new fans with this vivid, twisty crime novel.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Something for everyone, and then some.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Nolan returns in [Desolation Canyon], and it’s even better than the first. . . Fans of the Monkeewrench novels, which also feature a tough, no-nonsense female protagonist, should find the Nolan books very much up their alley.” —Booklist

Praise for Deep into the Dark

“Tracy seems to have found her literary sweet spot.” —Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review

“Riveting. . . Tracy’s characters are richly developed and seriously human, each struggling with how to overcome their dangerous dark pasts. I’m eager for more of Tracy’s new gang.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune

“Tracy delivers a darker, richer story in Deep into the Dark.” —Oline Cogdill, Shelf Awareness

"An intense, unforgettable novel that focuses on the predators and prey that thrive in the city. The intricately plotted story handles Easton’s PTSD with compassion while revealing his disturbing torment. Three complex characters, Sam, Melody, and Detective Nolan, are introduced in a gripping story for thriller fans.” —Library Journal (starred review), Pick of the Month

“[A] riveting series launch. . . . The suspense rises as the plot takes some unexpected twists and turns.” —Publishers Weekly

“The layered storytelling and empathy offered to every character make Deep into the Dark not just a hard-to-put-down thriller, but one that leaves the reader with much to think on, with no easy answers in sight.” —BookPage

From the Publisher

08/01/2021

In the LJ-starred series-starter Deep into the Dark, LAPD Detective Margaret Nolan joined forces with bartender Sam Easton, an emotionally shattered Afghanistan war vet, when he was accused of a crime she believed he didn't commit. No plot details yet, but they're back for a new round in this latest from New York Times best-selling Tracy, who wrote the celebrated "Monkeewrench" series with her late mother, P.J.

Library Journal

2021-09-29
LAPD Homicide detectives Maggie Nolan and Al Easton land a murder case that seems to bring them up against every malefactor in the Pacific time zone.

Miles from everywhere but Death Valley sits the abode of the Children of the Desert, a spiritual retreat whose presider, Father Paul, is so evil that his wife, Marielle, is willing to risk her life to grab their daughter, Serena, and escape into the desert with her. She’s encouraged and helped in her flight by Desert Storm vet Lenny Jesperson, a virtual stranger she feels forced to trust. Lenny gets mother and daughter as far as his boat, the Royal Bess, but they’re snatched from their hiding place by Gregory Rybakov at the behest of millionaire businessman Ivan Lukin, who’s been supplementing the fortune he’s made through the behemoth Krasnoport by running drugs through the Children of the Desert and who can’t afford a police investigation into Marielle and Serena’s disappearance. But that’s exactly what follows when Nolan seeks a break from a family drama whose latest chapter is her mother Emily’s checking in at the Children of the Desert to deal with her bottomless grief over the death of her son. Sharing a drink with colleague Detective Remy Beaudreau and walking around the Bel-Air Hotel’s Swan Pond, Nolan discovers a corpse in the pond. The dead man, Blake Lindgren, was general counsel to Krasnoport, and his death marks the beginning of the long, long process of tying all these threads together. Tracy spikes the mixture with a few more deaths, a lot more felonies, and several hints that Emily Nolan may not be the only relative who’s passing time among the Children of the Desert.

Something for everyone, and then some.

Kirkus Reviews