City of lost girls - Declan Hughes

In LA there's a killer on the loose. He kills young and rootless girls and he always kills in threes. Back in Dublin, Ed Loy, happy in a new relationship, is reunited with Jack Donovan, a film director friend from LA with a turbulent personal history. When the third young female extra fails to show for work on Jack's movie, Loy begins to suspect Jack. And when the previous victims of the 'Three-in-One Killer' are discovered in LA at locations Jack used for his movies, Loy's suspicion hardens. He flies to LA to liaise with the LAPD on their investigation. He must find something in his and Jack's shared past that can point to the killer.

But then, when he finally unearths the truth, it looks like it may be too late. Back in Dublin, the 'Three-in-One Killer' has broken his pattern, broken cover and struck at Ed Loy where he is most vulnerable. Time is not on Loy's side as he mounts a desperate fight to outwit a ruthless psychopath and save the last of the lost girls.

Declan Hughes was born in Dublin, where he lives with his wife and daughters. He has worked as a playwright and director and co-founded the award-winning Rough Magic Theatre Company, where he was artistic director and writer-in-residence. The first in the series of Ed Loy mysteries, The Wrong Kind of Blood, won the Shamus Award for best first novel and the third, The Dying Breed, was nominated for the prestigious Edgar Allan Poe award for best novel.

Taut and pacey, the prose is gorgeous, and there are plenty of twists and turns: a page turner and a treat
Guardian

Praise for the Ed Loy series:
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'If you don't love this, don't you dare call yourself a crime fiction fan'
Val McDermid

'Relentless, wayward, compassionate and all too human, Ed Loy is a classic hard-boiled private detective, more than worthy of a place among the great creations of Chandler and Hammett'
John Connolly

'Finally Ireland gets a hardboiled detective worthy of the name'
Ireland on Sunday

'Declan Hughes breathes new life into the private-eye story'
Michael Connelly