A Death in Cambodia Town - A Novel

In pursuit of a shapeshifting killer, rookie homicide detective Kat Hicks must coax secrets from LA’s Cambodian community—but a steamy affair with a female witness and her own war trauma threaten to derail her investigation.

In LA’s vibrant Cambodia Town, former marine and newly minted homicide detective Kat Hicks investigates the brutal murder of a Cambodian American boy. The graffiti on-scene shouts gang murder, but Hicks, a contrarian by nature, is suspicious of easy solutions––the boy was a dance student passionate about restoring the arts of his 1,000-year-old culture, and a sacred statue he had in his possession is missing.

Using a sixth sense born on the battlefield, Hicks begins burrowing into the victim’s family’s secrets—including his mother’s shocking experiences in the killing fields of Cambodia—and soon gets plunged into a shadow world of antiquities dealers and international criminals so outrageous that her department won’t take her seriously. Already on shaky ground, when she engages in an explosive love affair with a female witness, she’s removed from the case . . .

Frustrated by the department’s refusal to believe her and tormented by her mistakes, Hicks strikes out on a vendetta to catch the killer herself. From psychiatric facilities to cartel shoot-outs, she follows every lead—but ultimately, her caring and her friendship with the community she’s seeking to help proves to be the most important tool she needs to solve the crime. In turn, the bonds she forms help heal the ghosts of her past.