Graveyard Shift

Book excerpt: Los Angeles television reporter Maxi Poole must help her next-door neighbors' housekeeper locate her missing young son, Robert Ochoa in this twisty, unexpected mystery. Feisty news reporter Maxi Poole is back, and this time she's working the graveyard shift-where danger lurks in every dark shadow. The graveyard shift -- 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. -- is populated by a myriad of characters roaming the seamy underbelly of L.A. nightlife: pimps and hookers, bartenders and drug pushers, flashers, slashers, and all manner of assorted bad guys. Thrown into that mix is one bright-eyed, blond, California-sunny news reporter, Maxi Poole. The graveyard shift is typically handed off to the most junior reporter on staff-or as a signal that a pink slip is coming. But why Maxi? And at this point in her career? Vowing to find the answers, Maxi finds herself on the trail of a missing boy and in the midst of a city-wide murder spree. It seems the graveyard shift has brought Maxi the most terrifying challenge of her career . . . and maybe of her life.