In the ninth Jack Liffey mystery (after 2005's Dangerous Games
), Shannon once again skillfully dissects the sociocultural landscape of Los Angeles. When a young female film student and activist, Soon-Lin Kim, goes missing in Koreatown, Liffey discovers that Kim had been shooting a documentary about a group of former "comfort women," Korean-born women living in L.A. who had been forced into military brothels by the Japanese during the 1930s and '40s. Kim was at work exposing the shady wartime past of the conglomerate Daeshin, now responsible for evicting the elderly women from their downtown rooming house. Meanwhile, Liffey's 17-year-old daughter, Maeve, has fallen for a Latino gang member; his relationship with police detective Gloria Ramirez is suffering growing pains; and, frankly, he's just tired. When Liffey ends up abducted and imprisoned in a desert compound, Gloria has to step up to investigate his disappearance before a battle between the Feds and a militant Asian-American group erupts. This underrated series remains consistently provocative. (Feb.)
