The Lost Witness

With his novel CITY OF FIRE, Robert Ellis debuted a dynamic new character in Los Angeles detective Lena Gamble, but also captured a vivid picture of the city of Los Angeles. Readers and critics made CITY OF FIRE an instant phenomenon, as the book became a Los Angeles Times bestseller and was named a top summer read by People Magazine, USA Today, and The New York Times. Now Lena Gamble is a cop held in disgrace by department higher-ups for the explosive way the Romeo case played out, though she's still hailed as a hero by her colleagues for catching the killer. For her punishment, she hasn't handled a real murder investigation in eight months. When the chief finally tosses her a case, she's thrilled until she gets a look at the crime scene and realizes he’s probably setting her up to be exiled once and for all: the victim is unidentified, and there are no witnesses, and no leads. Just the body of a young woman, chopped into pieces and tossed in a dumpster—gruesome enough to ensure that once again the media will be following Lena’s every move. Robert Ellis delivers another high-speed, commercial, powerful read, featuring one of the most engaging and vibrant police characters on the shelf today. This novel received STARRED REVIEWS from Publishers Weekly and Booklist.