When private investigator Ivan Monk takes a case set in a public housing project, he finds himself facing the police and volatile gang members—and a murder charge.

Heat is building in the Rancho Tajuata Housing Projects, and not just because it’s summer in L.A. An immigrant family is firebombed and killed in their apartment.

Rage threatens to explode. The pressure is on to solve the murders quickly, lest more death and destruction follow.

At the request of the controversial onsite security force, P.I. Ivan Monk is called in to investigate. In tracking down the killer, Monk delves into a tangled history involving the Rancho, going back to the aftermath of the 1965 Watts riots and decades of bureaucratic corruption and racist policy decisions that affected South Central. As Monk navigates the complexities of Black and Brown conflict in the neighborhood, he finds himself at odds with the law, disillusioned with his friend and mentor, and, after a fierce fight with some thugs, under indictment for murder. He must race to not only clear his name, but prevent another bad night from falling on the Rancho for good.

“A first-rate example of contemporary noir fiction.”—The Sunday Telegraph