A Los Angeles homicide detective must catch a serial killer in this breathtaking crime novel from the New York Times–bestselling author of L.A. Confidential.

Lloyd Hopkins was not yet a cop when the Watts riots ripped Los Angeles apart. A member of the California National Guard, he had dreams of trading in his khaki uniform for blue—of serving and protecting instead of learning to kill. Called in to patrol the streets of South Central Los Angeles during the riots, he discovered that safeguarding his city often meant shedding blood.

Seventeen years later, Hopkins wears plainclothes. He has everything he had dreamed of as a young soldier: a wife, a family, and a detective's commission. But the city's finest homicide detective is about to be tested. Twenty women are dead, and to find their killer, this good cop must learn to think like a madman.
From a modern master of the noir novel, James Ellroy's bestselling, acclaimed crime fiction captures the seamy side of Los Angeles like no other author since Raymond Chandler.