Henry Rios Mystery

Los Angeles, 1986. A group of right-wing Christians has put an initiative on the November ballot to allow health officials to force people with HIV into quarantine campsand it looks like it's going to pass. Rios, now living in LA, agrees to be counsel for a group of young activists who call themselves QUEER [Queers United to End Erasure and Repression]. QUEER claims to be committed to peaceful civil disobedience. But when one of its members is implicated in the bombing of an evangelical church that kills its pastor, who publicly supported the quarantine initiative, Rios finds himself with a client suddenly facing the death penalty.

The Little DeathIn the novel that launched the acclaimed Henry Rios Mystery Series, a lawyer doggedly pursues a murder investigation into the lion's den of San Francisco's moneyed elite.Henry Rios meets Hugh Paris when Paris is arrested for drug possession and being high on PCP. A burnt-out public defender battling alcoholism, Rios has reached a crossroads in his life. While interviewing Paris in jail, Rios goes through the motions but notices that Paris is far more polished and well-off than the usual drug suspects. Paris is mysteriously bailed outbut a few weeks later, he turns up on Rios's doorstep. Skittish and paranoid, he admits to using heroin and says he's afraid that his wealthy grandfather wants to murder him.Rios tries to help Paris get clean, but when Paris is found dead of an apparent heroin overdose, Rios is the only one who considers foul play. Determined to find Paris's killer, Rios knocks on San Francisco's most gilded doors, where he discovers a family tainted by jealousy, greed, and hate. They've been warped by a fortune someone's willing to killand kill againto possess.At once an atmospheric noir mystery and a scathing indictment of a legal system caught in the maws of escalating corruption, The Little Death chronicles one man's struggle to achieve true justice for all.In 2022, The Little Death was named by Book Riot as one of the 25 Best Murder Mystery Books.