California girl - Jefferson Parker

Stunning new thriller from the award-winning Jefferson Parker, author of The Blue Hour, Red Light, Black Water and Cold Pursuit.

In 1968 Southern California was a tumultuous and at times seriously weird place to be. Jim Morrison was on the radio, Nixon was headed for the White House, Charles Manson was on the prowl and Dr Timothy Leary was introducing his followers to the wonders of LSD.

It was also the year Nick Becker investigated his first homicide. The victim had been a beauty queen till they took away her crown for posing in Playboy. But Nick's memory of her went back way before that, to a five-year-old in a tutu and cowboy boots. It gave him an added incentive to find the man who cut off her head and dumped her in an old packing house amid the orange groves.

Four decades on, Nick discovers that the man he arrested for the murder, the man the court convicted despite his 'not guilty' plea, may indeed have been innocent after all. But in order to unearth the truth, Becker will need to dig deep into his own family's darkest secrets.