Miles Cor­win, for­mer crime reporter for the Los Ange­les Times and true-crime author, brings Los Ange­les police detec­tive Ash­er ​“Ash” Levine back in a sec­ond mys­tery. The first, Kind of Blue, was one of Booklist’s Top 10 First Crime Nov­els of 2011. Ash, the child of a Holo­caust sur­vivor, a for­mer IDF para­troop­er, and a ded­i­cat­ed surfer, has a unique per­spec­tive on mur­der, redemp­tion, and jus­tice. His lat­est case will bring The Mal­tese Fal­con to mind as peo­ple fran­ti­cal­ly search for an antique trea­sure while the mur­der toll ris­es. One of the mur­der vic­tims is the son of a city coun­cil­man who is a vehe­ment crit­ic of the police depart­ment, so Ash is under pres­sure to solve the case quick­ly. He must also avoid becom­ing the vic­tim of an ex-con who has accept­ed an offer of $25,000 to take him out and fig­ure out how to deal with his estranged wife and his moth­er, who gets upset when he does not show up for Shab­bat din­ner. This book will have wide appeal. It is a first-rate police pro­ce­dur­al with lots of Jew­ish val­ues. Ash sees police work as a con­tri­bu­tion to tikun olam and works hard to make sure that jus­tice pre­vails and cor­rup­tion uprooted.