Rubout, A Francesca Vierling Mystery

From Anthony and Agatha Award-winning author of the Dead-End Job mysteries—a gritty series featuring a no-nonsense female journalist who follows her stories wherever they may lead…especially if they lead to big trouble.

St. Louis City Gazette columnist Francesca Vierling has scored a ticket to the Leather and Lace Bikers’ Society Ball, one of the highlights of the social calendar. The organizers of the ball would prefer the event be considered a low-light, however, and have done everything they can to rough up the affair and deter the RUBs—Rich Urban Bikers who can’t tell a Harley Hog from a Holstein heifer—from showing up.

A little grittiness can’t stop ultra-fashionable socialite Sydney Vander Venter from making an appearance. She’s the talk of the town thanks to an impending divorce from her ultra-wealthy husband. But after spending the evening making moves on a few too many married men, she’s told to hit the road.

When Sydney’s body is found ditched in a back alley, Francesca finds herself on a hunt for a murderer that takes her into the lives of St. Louis’s hardcore biker gangs and the prim and powerful elite. But she soon learns that those very different worlds have one rule in common…

If you don’t belong, you don’t survive for long.

Note: The author has made some minor revisions to the original text for this edition of the book.