THE BLUEST NIGHT

A Black ex-LAPD detective who now investigates police misconduct for a law firm gets more work than he ever could have wished for.

Veronica Dixion, one of many ex-lovers of retired LAPD detective turned PI Shaun Finnegan, is concerned that Avery Dixion, the son driving from Nevada to meet his father for the first time, has disappeared en route along with his girlfriend, Keisha Landry. And she’s right to be concerned, because soon after the police find Keisha’s dead body in the Malibu Hills, Finnegan’s son, ex-cop Trevor, stumbles over Avery’s not-quite-dead body along a nearby road. Sharply challenging the assumption of primary investigator Det. Beatrice Brennan that Avery, who pleads amnesia, killed Keisha, Trevor, struck by the unusual clothing both victims were wearing, beats the bushes for other suspects and unearths three disturbing patterns. One is the similarity of this incident to another crime nearly 30 years ago, when Sharice and Gabriel Mitchell, teenage siblings fleeing an oppressive foster home, were attacked by a gang that left Gabriel dead and Sharice devastated after dressing them in remarkably similar outfits. A second is that the attackers, who may have been responsible for dozens of outrages in between the two Trevor can identify, seem to have deliberately targeted Black people, either because they won’t be missed or because their predators want to celebrate a return to slavery via “antebellum chic.” And a third is that yes, the local authorities are probably involved; in fact, it’s hard to say for sure if any of them definitely aren’t.

Clark delivers a mystery that’s also a searing indictment of contemporary racism.