College bound Javier Jiminez is juggling life in one of Los Angeles’s toughest neighborhoods, Barrio Horseshoe, better known as the Shoe. He divides his time between friends, AP classes, keeping his younger brother out of a gang, and working for his half-sister’s towing company. While checking in a tow, Javier discovers a gun and a burner phone. The phone comes to life, kicking off events that will change the Shoe forever.

George Jones is a developer, but of neighborhoods, not properties. He methodically finds areas that are economically depressed with largely immigrant populations and actively works to destroy property values and drive out residents. His plan is to re-route the oft talked about California Bullet Train to the Shoe, redeveloping the neighborhood from the ground up into Los Angeles’s next hot spot.

Javier is too smart not to put two and two together as tragedy after tragedy hit his neighborhood. When the losses become real, they also become personal. He’s a teen, an immigrant with few connections and fewer people he trusts. Still he steps in to the role of disruptor, a mouse facing off with a lion.

Bottom line: Gone to Ground is for you if you like everyman heroes who are a pain in the bad guy’s ass.

Listen to Chapters 1 & 2 here or wherever you get Mysteries to Die For podcast.

MEET Morgan Hatch

Having taught in the LA public schools for thirty years, Morgan now writes about the people and places he has come to know in the course of his career. During the pandemic, he began writing Gone To Ground while Los Angeles was going through scandals involving public officials and an uptick in the perennial “crises” of homelessness, immigration, and gentrification. Add to this the on-again-off-again California bullet train, and you have the main threads of this novel. Morgan lives in Los Angeles with his wife where he’s trying to learn his mother-in-law’s recipe for dal dhokli.

GONE TO GROUND is published by Black Rose Writing and Promoted by Partners in Crime.

Wondering what to read after you finish Gone to Ground? Partners in Crime Tours is your ultimate destination for all things mystery, crime, thriller, and cozy! Since 2011, they’ve been working to fill bookshelves with gripping and heart-pounding reads. Discover new mystery series and connection with other fans with Partners in Crime. Look up Partners in Crime Tours on the web or your favorite social media.