Lavender House jumps out of the first page with an empathetic (probably) good guy who saves a young girl being hassled by a guy. Then the (probably) good guy encounters a mysterious woman who wants to hire him -- he had recently lost his job in the San Francisco police department. Noir, vivid, with intriguing questions from the start, I can't wait to read the rest of A.C. Rosen's suspenseful tale.