Mother of Pearl

＂The story rarely unfolds as you expect, there are some nice twists and wrong turns that keep the plot interesting. Mother of Pearl has some classic elements of pulp; the city’s dark underbelly, widespread corruption, shady heroes, villains in every direction and a high body count.＂
- Nudge Noir

When the daughter of a prominent DC businessman goes missing, a homicide detective must unravel a mystery involving a gang war, his own conscience and a 15 year-old unsolved murder before it costs him the girl’s life and his own.

On the surface, Detective Knox has everything: a rising young star in homicide and favorite of the chief; he’s well adjusted and happy. But the truth is that he’s no more than a retriever of rich kids, a ’fixer’ for a secret department, a casual drug user sliding towards addiction, and a man full of loathing for who he is and what he does.

On the outside, Constance Van Buren lives the charmed life of being the pretty, popular, pampered teenage scion of one of DC’s most prominent families. But on the inside she’s a strung out junkie, forever haunted and damaged by the unsolved murder of her mother 15 years ago.

The quiet little lies they share in common have managed to keep the awful truth at bay; until Constance goes missing. When Knox is assigned to bring her back home he will stumble onto a conspiracy involving a new triangle trade of drugs, money and immigration, ancient family secrets and his own involvement in D.C.’s most corrupt police department. If he’s going to survive long enough to expose the truth, he’ll have to get past a horde of people looking to do him wrong, himself included.

Mother of Pearl is a pulpy, violent noir mystery, a modern-day Chandlerian novel of gray morals, easy purchased virtues and dark corners where D.C.’s dark history and bright future collide.