See Her Run: An Aloa Snow Mystery

Journalist Aloa Snow, the appealing heroine of Townsend’s gripping first novel and series launch, loses her job at the Los Angeles Times after an article she wrote about Vietnamese nail salon workers turns out to have a fictitious source. She moves from L.A. to San Francisco, where she contends with debt and anorexia for the next couple of years. Then she gets a phone call from Michael Collins, whom she hasn’t heard from in 18 years and with whom she has a fraught past. Michael, a philanthropist who has founded an independent newsroom, asks Aloa to investigate the apparent suicide of 25-year-old adventure runner Hayley Poole during a camping trip in the Nevada desert. Reluctantly, she takes the assignment despite her fears that reentering the world of journalism and reconnecting with him may resurrect her insecurities and aggravate her eating disorder. Aloa’s pursuit of the story of Hayley’s death plunges her into a world of murder and corporate intrigue. Readers will look forward to seeing more of plucky Aloa. Agent: Heather Jackson, Heather Jackson Literary Agency. (June)