Sam Milliron writes on the history and anthropology of Polynesia while using the pen name, Steele Mackaye (pronounced mah-kai, with the emphasis on the second syllable), he writes historical mystery fiction. Truth one day, fiction the next, with fiction paying better than truth as any California politician would, quietly, agree.
Steele Mackaye is looked on by the LAPD as a "wandering consultant" as homicide Lt. Miles Harper calls it, so it was natural for him to ask Mackaye to look into the brutal killing of psychic reader Sister Cynthia, which leads Mackaye to a deadly confrontation with a nameless killer.
Meeting at a mystery readers/writers conference, Mackaye invites Elizabeth Vaughn to move her PI firm from Burbank to share his excess office space in Century City which would put her close to her three largest clients and thus open up new situations -- situations that take Elizabeth and her operatives into unexpected directions.