Desert Noir — Betty Webb

Death As A Way Of Life

When Clarice Kobe is found savagely beaten to death in her Scottsdale, Arizona, art gallery, her abusive ex-husband, Jay, is the prime suspect. But as much as everybody hated the guy, private investigator Lena Jones thinks there's more to the murder of her friend and neighbor. Knowing Clarice had a darker side, Lena follows her suspicions down a trail littered with vengeful artists, lost souls and perverse characters to a deadly showdown.

This case is oddly linked to the question that has haunted Lena's own life: her identity. Shot in the head at age four and left for dead, Lena find that her search for Clarice's killer leads her further into a depraved world where love and hate are interchangeable, a place Lena knows all too well. And as sh closes in on a killer, she will be forced to make final choice between acceptance and far, between life and death, between leaving this world . . . or embracing it.