Real Stories for an Unreal Age
the story of a fragmented world of multiple truths, a cop who must keep it that way, and a band of young rebels determined to stitch reality’s pieces back together again
In a normal world, the police are supposed to keep the peace. This isn’t a normal world, and Vera Burns isn’t a normal cop. The center has not held. Vera’s fellow citizens—folks like the book burners and the book lovers, the neo-puritans and the pan-sensualists, the dog people and the cat people, the daynighters and the nightcrawlers—have retreated behind walls where they nurse their particular understanding of what’s true and real. In this segmented status quo, Vera’s job is to keep the separation. Neither Vera nor anyone else believes it’s paradise. But they know it’s better than the polarized and violent past. It’s stable. Predictable even.Until a girl ends up dead in a place she doesn’t belong. Was it a murder? An accident? Why was she so far from home? As Vera investigates, she discovers an underground movement of rebel kids conspiring to resurrect the civic spirit and build a true city. Now Vera must decide whether this plan is the dream of silly children or the way to a better future.“Blade Runner meets the Goonies.”
-- Matt Lanzdorf
Politics. Surfing. Constituent Services. Murder. Funny places. Gentrification. More murder. Lots of LA atmosphere. GOLDEN PALMS isn’t your usual noir.
Ted Burek isn’t some jaded private dick or bitter cop with a past. In fact, Ted’s not much of a detective at all. He’s a low-level political hack looking for some redemption in LA’s halls of power. Someone doesn’t want to make it easy for him, though. Someone is determined to make trouble for his boss.To get to the bottom of what’s going on, Ted will face off with a ghostly gang assassin, radical bicyclists, out-of-town hard boys with malice in their hearts, slick real estate developers, over-confident tech bros, bloviating pols and one strident, but beguiling political activist.As Ted gets closer to the truth and further in over his head, he’ll discover just how high the price of justice can be.