Decimated by plague, the human population is now a minority. Robots --- complex AIs almost indistinguishable from humans --- are the ruling majority. Nine months ago, in a controversial move, the robot government opened a series of preserves, designated areas where humans can choose to live without robot interference. Now the preserves face their first challenge: someone has been murdered. Chief of Police Jesse Laughton on the SoCar Preserve is assigned to the case. As he digs for information, robots in the outside world start turning up dead from bad drug-like programs that may have originated on SoCar land. And when Laughton learns that his murder victim was a hacker who wrote drug-programs, it appears that the two cases might be linked.

The final novel from the Twenty-Year Death trilogy, this installment is set in 1951 in the style of classic crime writer Jim Thompson. A desperate man pursuing his last chance at redemption finds himself with blood on his hands and the police on his trail...

The second novel from the Twenty-Year Death trilogy, this installment is set in 1941 in the style of classic crime writer Raymond Chandler. When a hardboiled private eye is hired to keep a movie studio's leading lady happy, he uncovers the truth behind the brutal slaying of a Hollywood starlet.

The first novel from the Twenty-Year Death trilogy, this installment is set in 1931 in the style of classic crime writer, Georges Simenon. When a body is found in a gutter in France, it leads the police inspector to the dead man's beautiful daughter --- and to her hot-tempered husband.

This much-anticipated debut consists of three full novels with separate stories covering a 20-year period, each written in the style of a great noir author. Two characters appear in all three as Ariel S. Winter tracks the rise and fall of a famous American author and his beautiful movie star wife.