Vanishing in the Haight: A Colleen Hayes Mystery

Set in 1978 San Francisco, this enjoyable series launch from Tomlinson (the Agency series) introduces Colleen Hayes, whose resourcefulness and strength have been forged by her turbulent past. After serving 10 years in prison for killing her abusive husband, Colleen works as a security guard at an abandoned warehouse. Then a retired policeman she knows connects her with wealthy Edward Copeland, who’s on the verge of death. Copeland hires her to find out who raped and murdered his 18-year-old daughter, Margaret, in 1967. Jim Davis, an informant, gives her a lead, but she’s soon stonewalled by the police and mired down in red tape. Colleen continues to push even after Davis is murdered, and she realizes that the corruption that buried the case originally could very well lead to her own death. Intelligent and observant, Colleen has a healthy dose of ex-con cynicism as well as a sense of justice and a way of seeing through social conventions that echoes Ross MacDonald’s Lew Archer. Detective fiction fans will willingly follow her into her next adventure. Agent: Evan Marshall, Evan Marshall Agency. (Aug.)