Under a Broken Sky

California politics are more than rotten. They're lethal, as investigator Emma Lawson is about to find out the hard way in Kris Calvin's second Sacramento-set thriller for fans of Meg Gardiner.


The youngest lead ethics investigator in Sacramento, California, 33-year-old Emma Lawson is on a professional roll-until she's unceremoniously demoted just as she launches a major corruption investigation. But as she fights for her professional future, Emma's past hits her fast. Her father, Atticus, who disappeared when Emma was just 11, has been found locked up in a San Francisco jail for assault.

Should she abandon Atticus Lawson, as he abandoned her when she was a child, or post bail, give him somewhere to stay, and try to find some answers? Emma immediately regrets it when she decides to bring him home. Her father's long-kept secrets rapidly unravel as one stranger after another appears at Emma's door with bizarre stories about his life: an assumed name, a dead woman, and a fortune found and lost.

As Emma tries to separate fact from fiction, events in real time quickly escalate: a break-in at her home, a deadly act of arson, and an attempt on her life. With each mounting danger, Emma struggles with whether her blood ties to her father are worth risking everything she's worked so hard to build. But it quickly becomes apparent that the worst is yet to come, and that the corruption Emma has been digging for is not only real-it's deadly.