City of Rose

Hart’s appealing second Ash McKenna noir (after 2015’s New Yorked) finds the former New York PI aground in Portland, Ore., where he passes quiet days as a bouncer at a vegan strip club (the food “is mostly hummus plates and black bean tacos”), working to quell daydreams of bagels and nightmares about the recent death of Chell, the woman he loved. When a dancer at the club asks for help finding her missing daughter, apparently snatched from day care by the girl’s father, he weighs a twinge of sympathy against his vow to stay far from the violence of detective life and says no. But when a mysterious chicken-masked gunman warns Ash to stay away, he determines to find the girl. In the process, Ash tangles with drug cartels, political conspiracy, and the internal demons he hoped to escape in laid-back Portland. In attempting to balance the goofy fish-out-of-New-Yawk-water punch lines with Ash’s inner darkness, Hart struggles at times for a coherent tone. Still, readers will enjoy his playful, jaded hero and twisty plot. [em]Agent: Bree Ogden, D4EO Literary Agency. (Feb.) [/em]