<p><b>He's a good detective...with a bad habit. </b><p><b><br></b><p><b>One of the Year's Best Crime Novels - <i>The New York Times Book Review, Booklist</i></b><p><br><p>Frank Marr knows crime in Washington, DC. A decorated former police detective, he retired early and now ekes a living as a private eye for a defense attorney. Frank Marr may be the best investigator the city has ever known, but the city doesn't know his dirty secret.<p><br><p>A high-functioning drug addict, Frank has devoted his considerable skills to hiding his usage from others. But after accidentally discovering a kidnapped teenage girl in the home of an Adams Morgan drug gang, Frank becomes a hero and is thrust into the spotlight. He reluctantly agrees to investigate the disappearance of another girl&#8212;possibly connected to the first&#8212;but the heightened scrutiny may bring his own secrets to light, too.<p><br><p>Frank is as slippery and charming an antihero as you've ever met, but he's also achingly vulnerable. The result is a mystery of startling intensity, a tightly coiled thriller where every scene may turn disastrous. THE SECOND GIRL is the crime novel of the season, and marks the start of a refreshing series from an author who knows the criminal underworld inside and out.