In 1987, leather-clad tourist Blanca Nul goes missing in small-town New Zealand. Local reporter Ray Moody, washed-up and over-imbibing, gets a scoop the foreigner modelled for a pornographic magazine. He chases the story but crashes his car and loses his job.

A year to the day after she was reported missing, Blanca is mysteriously sighted a second time. Ray sees a chance to revisit the missing person story and revive his career. The doppelganger death is identified as local goth Amber Drake and labelled a suicide, but Ray is not convinced. He discovers Amber was a risk-taker with a darker purpose. She frequented the notorious S&M club Blue Hotel where the rich and powerful engaged their fantasies in anonymity.

As he searches for the real story, Ray will learn how desperate, damaged and lonely people from all walks of life can be, and that the truth is hard-won and painful.

A gritty, gripping crime novel.

'Blue Hotel's wily, tangled narrative is pure enjoyment, and the tenderness of its damaged characters is deeply affecting.' Tim Rogers

'Dialogue so fast and caustic it doesn't leave prints at the scene.' Jock Serong