Perfidia

December 6, 1941. The United States is on the brink of World War II. The last hope for peace is shattered when Japanese squadrons bomb Pearl Harbor. Until then, Los Angeles has been an unstable refuge for Japanese Americans, but now the madness of war and a growing sense of resentment grip the city. In this atmosphere of fear and suspicion, the discovery of the bodies of a middle-class Japanese family brings a multitude of characters into play: the shrewd and ambitious police captain William H. Parker, the brilliant Japanese forensic chemist Hideo Ashida, the young and daring Kay Lake, the former boxer Lee Blanchard, police officer Bucky Bleichart, and the Irish homicide detective Dudley Smith—all familiar faces from Ellroy's previous novels.