Between her LAPD consulting gig, fledgling indie news blog, and postpartum panic disorder, former TV journalist Corey Tracey-Lieberman is barely keeping it together. Then a mother named Sonja Hart vanishes in her Highland Park neighborhood, and the case is all but ignored. Sparked by maternal fury, Corey’s investigative instincts come roaring back to life.

To see the truth clearly, Corey must stop taking the meds that keep her anxiety at bay. Forced to confront her own failing marriage, she struggles with her growing feelings for her crime-fighting partner. Strapping her fourteen-month-old son to her chest, she follows a trail that leads from a suspicious house fire to the furtive activities of new neighbors.

The more she digs, the more she uncovers about the secret toll of gentrification—and the closer she comes to the verge of a breakdown. And the horror dawns that the killer she’s been chasing has been watching her all along…

Jaime Parker Stickle is the author of Vicious Cycle, book one of the Corey in Los Angeles series. A professor of film and television at Montclair State University, she is also a writer, actor, and podcaster. Jaime is the creator and cohost of The Girl with the Same Name, a true crime podcast, as well as Make That Paper, a hilarious podcast about side hustles. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, son, and four-legged babies.