Fault Lines

This is a novel about building a house, and building a case. The house, or cabin compound, is on Steady Ed Steadman's long-held beachfront property in Pacifica, just below San Francisco on the Pacific coast. The case is the drugging, abduction, and rape of a teenage girl, left to die in the Rockaway Beach parking lot, in the same summer that the Mercy Investigations crew is learning how to build cabins from Acton Barr, Ed's much younger and steady girlfriend. As the house goes up, the case is slowly built, too, until the cabins are up and the bad boys are exposed. Ed originally was going to build a small cabin for his retirement, but of course he couldn't retire, and instead his circle expanded, until what they needed was a cabin compound, not just a little cabin. They expected to have a peaceful and quiet summer learning to build, but trouble has a way of finding the Mercy Investigations crew, probably because they all really like to help people and catch bad guys. In the process, as usual, they meet a lot of new faces, and make some good new friends. Enjoy this novel of building, in its various permutations.