Beware Beware: A Juniper Song Mystery

At the start of Cha’s engaging sequel to 2013’s Follow Her Home, Daphne Freamon, a painter who lives in New York, hires Juniper Song, fledgling Los Angeles PI, to trail her boyfriend, Jamie Landon, ghostwriter for film star Joe Tilley. As Jamie, whom Daphne suspects is using and possibly selling cocaine, cruises the L.A. party scene, the two women develop a long-distance friendship over the phone. Then Joe is murdered, the police zero in on Jamie, and Song’s assignment changes to proving his innocence. After Daphne arrives in town, a sinister man stalking Song’s roommate is shot, and both PI and police suspect a link between the cases. Song soon becomes caught in a complex plot involving deception, betrayal, and revenge. Cha follows noir conventions, with Daphne as femme fatale and Song forced into morally ambiguous choices, but she also offers a plucky heroine, warm secondary characters, and a vivid portrait of L.A.’s Koreatown. [em]Agent: Ethan Bassoff, Lippincott Massie McQuilkin. (Aug.) [/em]