Hunter of Illusions

Detective Mateo Rodriquez of the San Diego Police Department is a crack-shot investigator, usually calm and lawfully shepherding the cozy beach village of La Jolla, California, but he has a problem. Late on a weekend night, Ned Cole reports his domestic partner, sultry film actress Catalina Braxton, missing from a luxurious party he is hosting at his beach home. The next morning lifeguards find her dead at the surf with her hands bound behind her back. Ruling out accidental downing her death appears like a homicide, but the toxicology report, coroner's examination, and police rule it as a suicide by default of corroborative evidence.

Local friends finger Jessie Vargas, ex-husband and the California Delegate in the Order of Delacroix, a quasi-military and philanthropic secret cult. But there are other contenders-the domestic partner, and a secret lover. Mateo's ace is Camila Ortega Vazquez-an old crone psychic who helps him with difficult cases, but this time even her visions are enigmatic and tedious.

As Mateo investigates acquaintances and suspects, bartender friend Ransom Craven arranges a blind date for him with Alina Kanerva-a rebellious Finnish nurse pregnant from an earlier boyfriend. Peril arises when the Order wounds Ransom and injures Alina to thwart the investigation. After Alina's birth of the baby, Rodriquez pushes plans for marriage but an elegant sea ceremony on a superyacht is shadowed by a terrorist attack. As the case cracks to an unpredictable conclusion, control yields to karma.