Award-winning author Jeff Soloway debuts an entertaining new mystery series featuring a globe-trotting, caper- solving travel writer with a witty voice and a penchant for landing in sticky situations.

At a posh South American resort tucked into the lush jungles of the Andes, an American journalist has gone missing, leaving the hotel's PR agent, Pilar Rojas, with an international incident on her hands. Which is why she offers her ex-lover, travel writer Jacob Smalls, an all- expenses-paid trip to the resort in exchange for a puff piece extolling its virtues – and some behind-the-scenes digging into the disappearance. Intrigued by the prospect of winning Pilar back – and eager, as always, for freebies – Jacob hops the first flight to La Paz, Bolivia.

Although he hasn't seen Pilar in years, Jacob finds her just as intoxicating as he did when they were together. But from the moment he hits the city's cobbled streets, Jacob attracts all the wrong kinds of attention. Political flunkies and goons of all stripes try to scare him off the trail, while the missing woman's not-quite boyfriend insists on shadowing Jacob's every move. And amid ancient Incan hillside terraces, a world-class hotel conceals a secret that may kill.