Sucker Punch — Ray Banks

Cal Innes is back, in a "ferocious asskicker of a novel" (Daniel Woodrell, author of Winter's Bone), visiting the City of Angels for a boxing tournament that turns deadly.

In this, the second Cal Innes novel, Cal is looking forward to continuing his job as caretaker at Paulo's gym without the barbed-wire collar of parole. But a prodigal amateur boxer named Liam needs someone to go with him to his first major tournament in Los Angeles, and with rumors of a rigged competition, Cal's babysitting job swiftly turns into something dangerous. As his codeine habit and Liam's temper spin out of control, Cal finds himself in the desert, staring down the barrel of a gun. Suddenly the City of Angels doesn't seem quite so heavenly.

With his trademark dark humor, emotional acuity, and pulse-pounding action, Ray Banks takes Cal Innes, the "P.I. who always pays the price" (Boston Globe), where he has never gone before.