City of Smoke and Sea

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Queenie Rivers was raised by her grandparents in coastal Los Angeles. As she approaches thirty, her erratic lifestyle is forced back on course by a car accident and her grandmothers intervention.

But her recovery is interrupted by a break-in and Grans death. Grans last act was to set Queenie up with a job at an upscale seaside bistro with a shady reputationthe owner of which, it turns out, was once a close friend. As Queenie digs into Grans past for answers about the break-in, the murder, and the unnerving circumstances surrounding the restaurant and her new boss, she discovers that her grandmother, a Romani Holocaust survivor, kept many secrets, some of them otherworldlysecrets that become hers to unravel when she becomes a suspect in Grans murder case.

Author Bio

Malia Mrquez was born in New Mexico and grew up in New England. She holds a BFA in 3D Fine Arts from Massachusetts College of Art & Design and an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles. Her work in translation has appeared in Poetry Magazine and her short fiction and essays have been included in various journals and anthologies. Her first novel, This Fierce Blood, was published by Acre Books in 2021. Her second novel, City of Smoke and Sea, is forthcoming from Red Hen Press. She writes and teaches in Los Angeles.