After a terrifying stunt gone wrong leaves her plummeting into the tops of forest trees, a shaken Darcy Lott is dispatched by her Zen master to a remote monastery in California's redwood forest to face her worst fear—but also to deliver a message. This monastery has its own secrets. A student has disappeared and is feared dead. The leader of the monastery, Leo, Garson-roshi, is soon to leave under mysterious circumstances, and Darcy fears that trusting the likeable Leo will lead her into further danger. Yet, as Darcy struggles with her phobia, she becomes drawn further into this mystery, one she learns she must solve it in order to get out alive.

Set among the wistful Victorians of San Francisco, the second installment of the Darcy Lott series finds stuntwoman Darcy once again plagued by murder. Recently returned to San Francisco to assist her Zen teacher in his new zendo, Darcy cannot shake the pain of her brother's disappearance. When she spies him on the roof of the zendo, she hurries to catch him—and finds him gone. And when another disappearance rattles Darcy the very next day, she realizes something is afoot. A bit of digging uncovers a terrifying plot, and Darcy must once again race to thwart a killer.

San Francisco stunt double Darcy Lott specializes in creating the illusion of serious danger. But when her lawyer brother calls and asks her to wine and dine a mysterious client, the danger is no illusion. Darcy takes an instant liking to the client, Karen Johnson, but there are too many unanswered questions. Karen claims to be getting a divorce, but Darcy’s brother Gary doesn’t handle divorces. And when he insists that their older brother John, a cop, must not know of their meeting, Darcy’s red flags are raised. Who is this woman? And why does she need a high-powered lawyer? Soon, a murder shocks the city and John is the primary suspect. With John and Gary both in hiding and the police anxious to pin the death on John, Darcy finds herself with no one she can trust. Desperate for an end to the madness, she delves deep into Karen’s past, only to uncover a scheme even more shocking than murder itself.

Stunt double Darcy Lott is on location at the Port of Oakland, positioned for a power slide—a dangerous trick in which she falls off a bike and skids under an 18-wheeler. Late getting to the set, Darcy’s intermittent boyfriend and stunt driver Damon Guthrie is forced to rush the scene. His truck malfunctions and Darcy is injured. Tensions have never been higher between them, and on top of it, Darcy’s siblings are pressuring her to search for Mike, their missing brother. When Guthrie observes that the shipping containers headed for Asia would be a good place to hide out or stash a body, Darcy thinks with horror of Mike. Is this where her brother could be? Guthrie is no help to Darcy given their tenuous relationship, and all of her usual connections in the police department are suddenly shutting her out, so she’s on her own in a desperate quest to find a link between the port and her brother. The hunt leads her to the canyons of Los Angeles, a stunt ranch hidden in the desert, and ultimately to a horrifying discovery in San Francisco.

A mystery set in San Francisco from an Anthony Award-winning author who “knows how to create memorable characters [and] build suspense” ( Chicago Tribune ). Darcy Lott is a student of Zen Buddhism―as well as a stunt double in the film industry. One day, while scouting a location site on the Golden Gate Bridge, she sees a woman about to jump. The woman fights, but Darcy manages to pull her back. Before disappearing, the woman tells Darcy that by Thanksgiving she’ll be dead. Darcy has four days to find her and keep her from killing herself, but she has no idea who she is. Tracking her to a dodgy San Francisco neighborhood, Darcy uncovers whatever clues she can. The woman ran a copy shop operating as a front for the shady police boss of the neighborhood; lived in a cheap apartment above a bagpipe player; and spent very little money―except on an expensive racing bike the week before. Meanwhile, there are problems back on the set, as one of the producers drives the stunt car off the Berkeley pier. Darcy is being pulled in many directions by a case that will take her everywhere from Nob Hill and a swank charity reception to a place more terrifying than the cold Pacific . . . “Susan Dunlap is one of the best.” ― The San Diego Union Tribune

A new smart and sassy mystery featuring intrepid stunt double and Zen student Darcy Lott When her Zen teacher is attacked in front of her by a silent, hoodie-clad assailant, Darcy Lott feels uncharacteristically helpless. If she cannot identify Garson-roshi’s attacker, she cannot protect him. For whoever it is will surely strike again. But who would have a reason to assault this wise and gentle man? As she questions her fellow students and other acquaintances of the Zen master, it becomes clear that Garson-roshi has been keeping secrets from Darcy. What happened while he was living in Japan? And where does he disappear to on the last Wednesday of every month? Distracted by the possibility of her big career break on a new action movie, Darcy finds herself unprepared when the case takes a shocking twist …