Washoe County Library System

It's mid-September of 1893, and Eloisa Carstairs is the reigning beauty of Gilded Age Chicago society. To outsiders she appears to have it all. But Eloisa is living with a dark secret. Several months ago, she endured a horrible assault at the hands of Douglass Sloane, heir to one of Chicago's wealthiest families. Fearing the loss of her reputation, Eloisa has confided in only one friend. That is, until she meets Detective Sean Ryan at a high-society...

Former cop Cass Raines has found the world of private investigation a less stressful way to eke out a living in the Windy City. But when she stumbles across the dead body of a respected member of the community, its up to her to prove a murderer is on the loose . . . Cops can make mistakes, even when theyre not rookies. If anyone knows that its Cass Raines, who took a bullet two years ago after an incompetent colleague screwed up a tense confrontation...

"Wealth. Power. Celebrity. Vonda Allen's glossy vanity magazine has taken the Windy City by storm, and she's well on her way to building a one-woman media empire. Everybody adores her. Except the people who work for her. And the person who's sending her flowers with death threats . . . As Vonda's bodyguard, off-duty cop Ben Mickerson knows he could use some back-up--and no one fits the bill better than his ex-partner on the police force, Cass Raines....

While searching for fifteen-year-old Ramona Titus, who has run away from her foster home, Black homicide cop-turned-PI Cass Raines soon discovers that Ramona is holding secrets dark enough to kill for and if Cass can't find her first, she will have nowhere left to run.