26 Beauties

The 26th installment in the Women's Murder Club series opens near Golden Gate Park, where a young woman named Tina Barnes attempts to start a borrowed BMW. Her real name is Audrey Ware, and she fled witness protection in Oklahoma three weeks earlier after testifying against a major meth operation. Now working as an exotic dancer in San Francisco, she is approached by a tall stranger who sprays her face with a burning substance from a device resembling an asthma inhaler. Tina runs into the park, but the man chases her, and the scene implies her death.

The story shifts to Lindsay Boxer, a San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) Homicide sergeant and the novel's narrator, who has organized a surprise party at Susie's Café for her best friend Claire Washburn, the city's medical examiner. The gathering brings together the Women's Murder Club, four professional women who collaborate informally on cases: Lindsay; Claire; Cindy Thomas, a San Francisco Chronicle reporter; and Yuki Castellano, an assistant district attorney. Their husbands attend as well, including Lindsay's husband, FBI agent Joe Molinari; Cindy's husband and Lindsay's partner, Rich Conklin; and Yuki's husband, Jackson Brady, Lindsay's lieutenant.

During the party, Claire clashes with Hope, her cousin Ellen's 19-year-old daughter who has been staying with Claire's family. Hope storms out, and Claire confides that the girl has been secretive and difficult. Meanwhile, Eric Snaff, a youth services worker from the East Bay town of San Julio, crashes the party seeking Cindy. His 17-year-old daughter, Nicole, disappeared three months ago, and he wants Cindy to investigate.

Lindsay is already working an unsolved case: an unidentified woman's body washed up on Marshall's Beach in the Presidio, dead from strangulation. The next day, Claire and her husband discover another body in Golden Gate Park, identified as Tina Barnes. Claire's autopsy reveals Tina was struck in the face and throat and had homemade pepper spray residue on her skin, a different cause of death from the first victim.

Cindy investigates Nicole's disappearance. In San Julio, Sergeant Stephanie Davis stuns Cindy by revealing that local police consider Eric their primary suspect. At the youth center where Eric works, Cindy meets Gina Scrittori, a fellow youth worker who vouches for Eric. Eric tells Cindy that two other girls from the area have also gone missing.

When Yuki observes that all the missing and murdered women are strikingly beautiful, Lindsay recognizes their beauty as the common thread and begins researching human trafficking. At Joe's suggestion, she contacts Interpol and speaks with Alain Creasy, a retired French detective now working in missing persons. Alain explains that trafficking organizations sell young women to wealthy buyers overseas, preying on troubled girls from unstable families, and offers to visit San Francisco.

A pattern of attempted abductions emerges. A tall man approaches young women across the city offering modeling or escort work; when they resist, he attacks with a fake inhaler filled with homemade pepper spray. One victim, 20-year-old waitress Amy Phelps, is strangled and killed. Another, 17-year-old Sasha Terns, escapes into a museum. Meanwhile, Yuki faces escalating intimidation in her prosecution of drug dealer Elio Huerta, charged with shooting a grocer named Roberto Paz, who now uses a wheelchair.

Through a contact on the streets, Lindsay traces the Marshall's Beach victim to Palo Alto, where her mother identifies her as Donna "Missy" Harris, a young woman who moved to San Francisco to pursue stand-up comedy. Claire later discovers a critical forensic link: The same compound, lecithin used as an emulsifier in homemade pepper spray, appears on both Tina Barnes and Missy Harris, confirming a single killer.

When Alain arrives, he and Lindsay investigate the Tenderloin, a neighborhood in central San Francisco known for street-level crime. A contact identifies a rundown residential hotel called the Garden Spot as a possible trafficking hub. Their presence draws danger: A bullet strikes the wall near Alain's head during one visit. Days later, a man from inside the Garden Spot shoots Alain in the chest after a confrontation with a local pimp. Lindsay arrests the shooter and applies pressure to Alain's wound until paramedics arrive. He survives, the bullet having nicked one lung.

Lindsay is suspended with pay, but the case accelerates. Cindy receives a drunken, possibly suicidal call from Eric Snaff, who rages against his former coworker Jason Cortlandt. Eric then goes missing. Lindsay enlists a teenage contact to trace Eric's phone to the concrete factory where Cortlandt works.

Lindsay and Cindy race to the factory and find Eric holding a gun to Cortlandt's head on a catwalk. Under duress, Cortlandt confesses: He gave Nicole the phone number of a man named Kyle Anderson, who paid Cortlandt $3,000 for each referral of a pretty girl. Cindy records the scene. Lindsay talks Eric down, and both men are taken into custody. In a formal interview, Cortlandt describes Kyle and mentions a house on Baker Street in Pacific Heights.

Brady lifts Lindsay's suspension, and the squad locates Kyle's Pacific Heights house, where a teenage girl confirms it serves as a holding point for trafficked girls. Acting on her tip, Lindsay and Conklin spot Kyle in the Tenderloin walking with Lizzie Nunez, a young woman desperately seeking the escort work he once offered. Kyle grabs Lizzie and holds a knife to her throat before shoving her toward the officers and fleeing. In a back alley, Kyle attacks Conklin with his pepper-spray inhaler, but Lindsay blocks the spray, charges him, and slams him into a wall, knocking him unconscious.

Yuki's trial erupts in violence when Anita, one of Elio's accomplices, wheels Roberto Paz into the courtroom, draws a gun, and disarms the bailiffs. Elio Huerta seizes their weapons and drags defense attorney Angela Torres toward the exit as a hostage. Anita shoots and kills a bailiff. Two patrolmen tackle the escapees; Elio breaks his neck in the fall. When Anita aims at a downed officer, Yuki shouts to distract her, and Brady fires his backup pistol, ending the threat.

The investigation yields results. Lindsay and Conklin find Nicole Snaff alive at a hotel in the Mission, living with two other girls. Nicole was lured by promises of travel and excitement but regretted her decision almost immediately. Eight girls are recovered in total, with leads developing on others. Claire's subplot also resolves when she confronts Hope, her cousin Ellen's daughter, and learns that Hope has been selling ZsaZsa, a synthetic marijuana product that was legal but is now being banned. Hope has saved over $15,000, and Claire cries with relief.

The Women's Murder Club gathers at Susie's with their husbands and a recovering Alain. Cindy arranges for Nicole and Eric Snaff to join the celebration, and the reunited father and daughter are welcomed with a cheer. Lindsay savors time at home with Joe, their daughter Julie, and Martha, but the novel closes with Brady calling her to a new body near the Ferry Terminal, signaling that her work continues.