City of Fallen Angels

Starred review from January 25, 2021
Set in 1962 Los Angeles, Buchanan’s terrific debut and series launch introduces Jim Keegan, a journalist turned private investigator. Keegan is in a funk. His mother has just died, and the death of Marilyn Monroe is very much in the news. He won’t accept a secretive new client offering a suspiciously fat fee for finding a young woman somewhere in L.A. with only a set of photographs to go on. The next day, Keegan spots the woman in the property neighboring his mother’s Hollywood home: she’s Eve Ormsby-Cutler, the niece of actor Nigel Ormsby, who owns the house. It turns out Eve also wants to hire Keegan—to protect her from some kind of stalker—but he helps her for free, and gives her his pistol for protection. When she kills Nigel when he arrives home unexpectedly, Keegan helps Eve cover up her involvement, and the police quickly, and reasonably, point the finger at the PI. Noir fans will recognize the femme fatale trope and the outlines of the plot (think Double Indemnity), but Buchanan has fully reimagined a classic plot. Readers will be eager for the sequel.