num_pages: 224
description: With his taut, cinematic plots and sun-blazed California settings, Arthur Lyons is the premier heir to the Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald tradition. And with his private-eye hero Jacob Asch, Lyons has carved out his own, acclaimed place in American mystery fiction. Now Asch returns for the first time in five years, in a novel of lies, lust, and murder in L.A.... Asch is taking a trip down memoryless lane, chasing down octogenarians and testing their sanity for twenty-five dollars an hour when he receives two calls from prospective clients. One caller cancels at the last second; the other, a man named Jacobi, hires Asch for a fool's errand. Asch returns to his office to find a corpse sitting at his desk, his brains splattered on Asch's rented walls. As a suspect in the murder, Asch falls into the hands of some tough L.A. detectives. But as he starts investigating the killing himself his luck gets better: He falls in with an icy blond Hollywood detective who cheerfully calls herself The Bitch Goddess. Leslie Boetticher is a fantasy come true. Asking Asch's help with murder - and two related killings - she takes him to never-never land. Back on earth, Leslie's ex-partners aren't so happy. Balancing on an erotic high wire above a sprawling land of junkies, mayhem, and murder, Asch has a dream woman in his bed and every man's worst nightmare lurking at his door. For somewhere in the reality of crime and corruption in L.A., the concrete-hard truth about a killing spree and one canceled phone call will all come together...
language: English
title: False Pretenses
titlecomplete: False Pretenses
genres: Mystery
ratings_count: 21
series: Jacob Asch Mystery
publisher: Mysterious Press