Once again this week, I’m linking up again with Vicky at I’d Rather Be At The Beach who hosts a post every Tuesday for people to share the first chapter/paragraph of the book they are reading, or thinking of reading soon. This week, I’m reading a book I was so excited to see because I’ve been waiting for it to come out since reading the second books in the series back in 2015.  It’s The Infinite Blacktop by Sara Gran and, although it doesn’t come out till September, I can’t wait to read it.  

What’s it about…

Claire DeWitt, the hard-living and tough-talking private investigator, has always been something of a detective. As a young girl growing up in Brooklyn, Claire and her two best friends, Tracy and Kelly, fell under the spell of the book by legendary French detective Jacques Silette. The three solved many cases together and were inseparable—until the day Tracy vanished without a trace. That is still the only case Claire ever failed to solve

Later, in her twenties, Claire is in Los Angeles trying to get her PI license by taking on a cold case that has stumped the LAPD. She hunts for the real story behind the death of a washed-up painter ten years earlier, whose successful and widely admired artist girlfriend had died a few months before him

Today, Claire is on her way to Las Vegas from San Francisco when she’s almost killed by a homicidal driver. In a haze of drugs and injuries, she struggles off the scene, determined to find her would-be killer’s identity—but the list of people who would be happy to see her dead is not a short one

As these three narratives converge, some mysteries are solved and others continue to haunt. But Claire, battered and bruised, continues her search for the answer to the biggest mystery of all: what is the purpose of our lives, and how can anyone survive in a world so clearly designed to break our hearts again and again?

How does it start?

Oakland, 2011

I fell into consciousness with a sudden, frightening, crash.  My eyes popped open into a line of bright white-hot pain. I couldn’t see anything except blinding light. I squeezed my eyes back shut. 

I gasped for air—

Remember, remember. 

What do you think? Would you keep reading?

Emma x

note: this is from an advance, non-corrected proof