Beauty with a Bomb: A Dixie Flynn Mystery

At the outset of Grant’s searing third Dixie Flynn mystery (after 2013’s Devil with a Gun), a 19-year-old Polish immigrant, Ania Zajak, threatens to jump off the ledge of a six-story parking garage in downtown San Francisco unless Det. Sgt. Frank Fury can get Dixie, a tough investigative reporter for a local weekly, to come to the scene. On arrival, Dixie tries to persuade Ania not to jump, but she does anyway, her body exploding before she hits the ground. At first, Dixie assumes Ania’s is yet another story of smuggled immigrants lured into the sex trade, but to her horror it’s something far more deadly. She joins Polish women trying to rescue the victims, and comes unpleasantly close to becoming a victim herself, much to the dismay of Frank, her frequent protector. Readers will cheer for this avenging less-than-angel as she goes after some very bad people. (Sept.)