Catalina Eddy: A Novel in Three Decades

Three loosely connected novellas, each focused on a homicide case, make up this gritty, darkly witty, and often bitter California noir from Pyne (Fifty Mice). In “The Big Empty,” set in Hollywood in June 1954, PI Rylan Lovely, an Army vet, investigates the murder of the ex-wife who betrayed him with his blind best friend; along the way, Lovely rescues a child, Gilbert Kirby. In “Losertown,” set in San Diego in June 1987, Kirby, now an assistant U.S. attorney, is trapped between a politically appointed boss, Sabrina Colter, “somebody’s kid sister crossed with a poisonous snake,” and his lover, FBI agent Tina Z, as they attempt to trap a drug lord. Kirby never knows that he’s the father of Tina’s Marine daughter, Willa, who’s arrested for killing her husband in “Portuguese Bend,” set in Long Beach in June 2016. Paralyzed homicide detective Riley McCluggage and freelance photographer Finn Miller try to crack the case. Pyne’s wounded characters walk their mean streets honorably in this compelling account of attempts to find sense in a senseless world. Agent: Victoria Sanders: Victoria Sanders & Associates. (Mar.)