Private

The novel opens with Jack Morgan, a former Marine helicopter pilot, recounting a near-death experience in Afghanistan. While carrying wounded Corporal Danny Young across a battlefield under mortar fire, Jack is struck by debris that stops his heart. His copilot, Rick Del Rio, revives him, but their helicopter explodes, killing Marines still trapped inside. Jack survives, haunted by survivor's guilt and a gap in his memory he cannot explain.

Two years after returning from the war, Jack visits his father, Tom Morgan Sr., a convicted extortionist and murderer, at a California state prison. Tom Sr. urges Jack to revive Private, his now-defunct high-end investigation company, offering $15 million from a hidden bank account along with client files. The condition: Jack must keep everything secret from his twin brother, Tommy, whom Tom Sr. considers reckless. A week later, Tom Sr. is stabbed to death in prison. Jack uses the inheritance to rebuild Private into a world-class investigation firm.

Five years after taking over Private, Jack attends the Golden Globe Awards when his best friend, Andy Cushman, a hedge fund manager, calls to say his wife, Shelby, is dead. Jack races to the Cushmans' home in Pacific Palisades and finds Shelby shot through the forehead and chest, her expensive jewelry untouched, ruling out robbery. Andy denies involvement. The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) suspects Andy killed Shelby in a crime of passion.

Meanwhile, Justine Smith, Jack's ex-girlfriend and Private's second-in-command, a forensic psychologist, learns from her boyfriend, LA District Attorney Bobby Petino, that another high school girl has been murdered. Over the past two years, 11 girls in the East LA area have been killed by wildly different methods, making profiling nearly impossible. The killer taunts authorities with untraceable e-mails signed "Steemcleena." Justine and fellow Private investigator Emilio Cruz examine the latest victim: 16-year-old Connie Yu, found in Silver Lake with her right ear severed. At Private's forensic lab, chief criminalist Seymour Kloppenberg, nicknamed Sci, and computer expert Maureen Roth, known as Mo-bot, discover a text on Connie's phone sent under a friend's name, luring her to her death. The team suspects the killer hacks victims' phones and that more than one person may be responsible.

Jack's personal life is strained. He is involved with Colleen Molloy, his young Irish assistant, though conflicted about his feelings, and he receives daily anonymous death threats: a distorted voice telling him he is dead. The narrative then reveals the killers' perspective. Rudolph Crocker, an equities analyst, was recruited into a real-life murder game through an online war game by a player called Morbid. Crocker, Morbid, and Steemcleena form a killing trio they call the Street Freeks.

A separate case arrives when Jack's uncle, Fred Kreutzer, a general partner of the Oakland Raiders, hires Private to investigate suspected game-fixing by corrupt National Football League (NFL) referees. Jack's inquiry also reveals that Tommy owes over $600,000 in gambling debts to the Mob. Jack confronts his brother, checks him into an exclusive rehab center, and flies to Las Vegas with Del Rio to pay off the debt to Carmine Noccia, son of Mob boss Ray Noccia.

The Cushman investigation deepens when Del Rio and Cruz discover Shelby had been working as a high-end escort at the Benedict Spa, a brothel owned by the Noccia family. Jack and Del Rio visit the spa but are attacked by Noccia enforcers; Jack disarms the lead thug and escapes. Cruz interviews workers who identify Shelby's regular clients and her drug dealer. When Jack tells Andy about Shelby's secret life, Andy is devastated and fires Jack, who continues the case pro bono.

The Street Freeks strike again, luring 17-year-old Marguerite Esperanza into a van with a fake text message. They drive her to a desolate area where she fights back fiercely but is shot and killed. That same night, two of the killers throw their third member off his sixth-floor terrace, staging his death as a suicide.

Justine pursues a connection to an older case. Five years earlier, a girl named Wendy Borman was strangled in the same alley where Connie Yu was found. A witness, Christine Castiglia, identifies Rudolph Crocker from school yearbooks as one of two young men she saw forcing a girl into a van near the scene years earlier. Sci's digital investigation converges with Justine's fieldwork. Through restricted tech forums, Sci links the dead third killer to Jason Pilser, a PR executive who fell from his apartment the night Marguerite was killed. In Pilser's apartment, the team finds a laptop revealing the Street Freeks' plans: In five days, the remaining two killers intend to target a girl in Silver Lake who goes by the online name Lady D.

Justine's personal life fractures when she discovers Bobby Petino has been reconciling with his estranged wife for political reasons while still seeing Justine. She ends the relationship.

Cruz flies to Miami and records two NFL referees receiving instructions from a lieutenant in the Chicago-based Marzullo crime family to fix an upcoming Raiders game. Jack and Del Rio then capture the family boss, Anthony Marzullo, on camera handing the refs cash. Jack presents the evidence to Uncle Fred, who confronts the referees before the game and forces their resignations.

An earthquake at Tommy's rehab center triggers the full recovery of Jack's repressed war memory. He remembers entering the downed helicopter's cargo bay and finding Corporal Jeffrey Albert trapped under dead bodies with shattered legs, begging Jack not to leave him. Jack, already carrying Danny, promised to return but could not: Debris stopped his heart and the helicopter exploded. Del Rio later reassures Jack that Danny was still alive when Jack carried him out and that Albert's death was unavoidable.

Justine and Lieutenant Nora Cronin, the LAPD detective on the Schoolgirl case, form an uneasy alliance and collect DNA evidence linking an associate of Crocker's to Wendy Borman's murder. Bobby Petino, however, refuses to issue a search warrant, citing insufficient probable cause.

Jack and Del Rio track down Shelby's drug dealer, Orlando Perez, and extract the name of a hit man, Bo Montgomery, who obliquely confirms the killing. Jack leverages the NFL evidence with Carmine Noccia, proving the Marzullos encroached on Noccia gambling territory. In exchange, Carmine reveals that Andy Cushman contracted Shelby's murder. Jack confronts Andy, who confesses he arranged the killing through his business ties to the Noccias. Jack beats him and leaves.

The Schoolgirl case reaches its climax when Mo-bot intercepts texts between Morbid, now identified as Eamon Fitzhugh, and his intended target, a girl named Graciella Gomez. Jack and Cruz race to the meeting point, where Cruz tackles Fitzhugh. Cronin and Justine locate Crocker nearby; Justine smashes his van window, and Cronin arrests him. A search of Crocker's apartment yields Wendy Borman's stolen gold star necklace, engraved "To Wendy with Love, M and D," bearing Crocker's fingerprints and Borman's blood. Offered life without the death penalty, Crocker fires his attorney and confesses, seeking notoriety. Fitzhugh also confesses.

The novel closes with several resolutions. Jack rushes to the hospital after learning Colleen has attempted suicide, stricken with guilt over his emotional unavailability; she tells him she is returning to Dublin. Tommy visits Jack's office, reveals he inherited $15 million from their father under a separate clause, and announces plans to build a rival security firm. He repays the gambling debt, then points at Jack and mimics the distorted voice, revealing himself as the anonymous caller who tormented Jack for years. Del Rio kills Montgomery with a sniper rifle in an act of extrajudicial revenge for Shelby's murder. Jack spends the night at Justine's house. The next morning, Carmine Noccia calls to report that Andy died in a suspicious single-car accident, implying the Mob arranged it. Jack hurls his phone into the ocean and tells Justine that Andy is dead.