Dead Extra. Sean Carswell

After being reported as dead in a German POW camp, Jack Chesley returns to L.A. in 1947 very much alive, only to discover that his wife is dead—and her twin sister insists that it wasn’t an accident like the cops said. They set out to find her killer, a journey that takes them from the boozy back corners of Musso & Frank, to the Camarillo mental hospital, to a seedy motel where blackmailers shoot dirty movies. In the spirit of such noir masters as Cain and Chandler, Dead Extra explores new shadows on the seedy side of midcentury Southern California.