Acclaimed crime writer Denise Mina is the first woman to recreate Raymond Chandler's infamous detective, Philip Marlowe, in this smart and atmospheric new authorized mystery that finds Marlowe on the hunt for a missing heiress—and up against a rival PI.

It’s early fall when a heatwave descends on Los Angeles. Private Detective Philip Marlowe is called to the Montgomery estate, an almost mythic place sitting high on top of Beverly Hills. Wealthy socialite Chrissie Montgomery is missing. Young, naïve, and set to inherit an enormous fortune, she’s a walking target, ripe for someone to get their claws into. Her dying father and his sultry bottle-blonde girlfriend want her found before that happens. To make sure, they’ve got Anne Riordan—now head of her own all-female detective agency—on the case, too.

The search for Chrissie takes the two investigators from the Montgomery mansion to the roughest neighborhoods of LA, through dive bars and boarding houses and out to Skid Row. And that’s all before they find the body at The Brody Hotel. Who will get to Chrissie first? And what happens when a woman doesn’t want to be found?

In The Second Murderer, Denise Mina delivers a clever and timely new take on Philip Marlowe, as well as a propulsive, dark, and witty mystery all its own.