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Rainey Hall Mysteries
by Ava Barry
Private investigator Rainey Hall stumbles into a dark mystery from her past that embroils her with an underground society of artists, a dangerous new drug, and a string of violent deaths.
While in high school, Rainey spent a summer taking advantage of the wildfires near Los Angeles to break into the empty houses of the rich and famous with her best friends, Alice and Spencer, committing small acts of larceny. These acts of rebellion culminated in a big theft from a powerful, well-connected musician with underworld ties. Days later, Alice went missing.
Now—nine years later—Rainey is a private detective chasing a missing person case. Chloe, a young vulnerable artist with a history of substance abuse, disappeared from her parents' house without a trace. As she digs into the case, Rainey not only discovers a string of missing artists, but connections to Alice, a case that had gone cold years ago. Diving back into her own past and Alice's disappearance, the investigation quickly becomes more twisted and dangerous than Rainey'd ever anticipated. She unearths a mysterious society steeped in drugs, art, and some of the most influential people in Los Angeles.
Powerful forces begin to close in on Rainey as she finds herself in a race against time to save Chloe—and finally reveal the truth of what happened to Alice all those years ago.
"[U]ndercooked...Unfortunately, many of the twists seem arbitrary, and several characters, including Rainey's agency partner, Lola, are unconvincing. Lacking both the daring plot and sizzling queer tension of its predecessor, this disappoints." —Publishers Weekly
"Ava Barry showcases the grit of modern Los Angeles while drawing on the glamour and glitz of old Hollywood—and its fetid underbelly. Creepy plants, a hotel with a dark history, and an investigator with a dark past fuel this evocative novel. Shoot the Moon simmers with suspense." —Ashley Kalagian Blunt, bestselling author of Dark Mode
"In Shoot The Moon, Ava Barry's electrifying new Rainey Hall Mystery, a missing artist pulls the PI deep into LA's gritty, enigmatic art world—and back into a haunting missing person case from her past. Barry captures LA with stunning, atmospheric precision, making the city a vivid character, much like in the works of Chandler and Macdonald. With each page, the tension intensifies, the shadows deepen, and the suspense becomes utterly addictive. Immersive and thrilling, this is a novel you won't be able to put down!" —John Copenhaver, Lambda and Macavity award-winning author of Hall of Mirrors
This information about Shoot the Moon was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Ava Barry was a script reader for Bold Films and Intrigue Entertainment, and an editorial assistant for Zoetrope: All-Story, Francis Ford Coppola's literary magazine. Windhall is her first novel. She lives in Australia.
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