Happening to Me — Jessica A. White

“From the Files of Mercedes Mace: Happening to Me” is the fourth novel of the Mercedes Mace series. The summer of 2021 is a hot mess: war, bombings, heat waves. Madness, chaos, and pain occupy the attention of our sun-allergic detective, who sweats out her family's financial anxiety all around the Bay Area, fixated on a pattern of kidnappings that no one else sees. Harassed by the Bay's noble families, everyone wants to lock up or kill Mercedes -- who barely manages to stay a blade's length away from the attention of an unrelenting evil from her past. Mercedes Mace is a swearing, brawling, legally-flexible PI -- a hard-boiled, 1940's detective in the high-tech 21st century. Her friends call her vampire; her enemies, ghoul. Mace feels at home in the massive City, a dystopian, alt-history San Francisco. It is her hunting ground. She preys upon those who would use the indentured poor for profit or sport. A blend of ‘old-time' radio show and modern satire, the Files feature the timeless style of ‘right-place-wrong-time' detective mysteries.