Saint Valentine: A 1930s Los Angeles Historical Detective Mystery (The Mercer Files Book 1)

Valentine Mercer used to be the LAPD’s golden boy. Now, he’s a disgraced ex-cop scraping by as a private investigator in a city that runs on bribes, blackmail, and studio fixers. Broke, sleeping on his office floor, and blacklisted by the corrupt Police Intelligence squad he used to work for, Val needs a paying job. Badly.

Enter Frank Moretti, a sharply dressed enforcer for the Chicago Outfit. He’s got five hundred dollars and a simple request: find Hattie Higgins, a missing Hollywood hopeful from the old neighborhood. It’s supposed to be a milk run. Find the girl, send her home to her mother for Christmas, and finally pay the rent.

Val’s search pulls him away from the glitter of the Boulevard and straight into the mouth of the beast itself. He quickly discovers that Hattie didn't just wander off—she was swallowed by the Kessler-Vance studio machine, a system designed to protect A-list monsters and bury their victims.

Suddenly, Val is the only thing standing between a battered girl and the people who want her erased. Caught in a lethal, city-wide crossfire between the local mafia, the Chicago syndicate, a ruthless studio fixer, and the LAPD thugs who want him dead, Val is up against it.

He might be known as "Saint Valentine," but playing by the rules will only get him a shallow grave in the desert.

Step into a meticulously researched, atmospheric vision of Depression-era Hollywood. Saint Valentine is a rapid-fire, hardboiled mystery perfect for fans of classic noir, cynical private eyes, and the dark history of the City of Angels.