Manhattan Sloane #3
Manhattan Sloane #3
BEYOND THE SMOKE
OLD FLAMES. NEW SECRETS.
Now private investigators, Manhattan Sloane and Finn Harper have just landed their very first big job—a contract to clean up a hefty load of unsolved crimes in San Francisco. On day one, the two women step into a political quagmire that pits them against powerful competing forces in the city.
Feeling like a pawn in a high-stakes chess game, Sloane stumbles across an unsolved murder with ties to her past—the police officer who rescued her from her parents’ deadly accident. When evidence points to someone close to her, she becomes determined to solve the twenty-two-year-old murder. But her progress is slowed by old flames and new secrets that threaten to unravel her new life with Fin and her daughter Reagan.
Will cutthroat politics prevent her from getting justice for her hero? Will Sloane finally get her happily ever after?
Published: July 2021
Series Titles
Manhattan Sloane Series
Art by: Pat Dilley
FROM THE AUTHOR
Beyond the Smoke, the third installment of the Manhattan Sloane series, picks up six months after the end of its predecessor. Similar to how I linked Out of the Flames to From the Ashes, I grab onto the one loose end from the previous book and make that the driving force of this one.
I started with this premise: Is it possible to make a fresh start without first making peace with the past?
If you’ve lived long enough like I have, you’ve reached the point once or twice when the surrounding chaos is too much, and the only way forward is to hit the reset button. I had the advantage of serving in the Air Force, and whether or not I liked it, I picked up everything and moved every three years to a new place and a new job. I found the new job refreshing with each move, but I missed having roots—close friends and an extended family that I could count on.
I wanted to give Manhattan Sloane both, but not without stumbling blocks. After throwing everything at her in the first two books, she’s ready for that fresh start with Finn, Reagan, and a new career as a private investigator. I make the past—hers and Finn’s—her greatest obstacle. Sloane is my hero, so I give her the tools I never had that make it possible to clean the slate. The question is, does she use them to find her happily ever after?
To find out if Manhattan Sloane gets her fresh start, you’ll have to read Beyond the Smoke.
– Stacy Lynn Miller