The Cry of Cicadas

A wounded ex-NYPD detective investigates murder and espionage on the coast of California in the early days of WWII.

Autumn, 1941—Max Byrns was once a high-flying NYPD detective, but his career ended the night he took a bullet intended for another officer. The shooting left scars both physical and emotional. Now his wife Elizabeth has given up her own successful career at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art so that Max can recover in the peaceful town on the California coast where she and the rest of her wealthy Schuyler family once summered.

In San Ignacio, they buy a house from a local Japanese strawberry farmer, Tadeo Suzuki. Elizabeth freelances in art restoration while Max and Tadeo become fast friends. But as the clouds of war gather, Max and Elizabeth worry about their son, Philip, serving in the Army Air Corps, and about the growing anti-Japanese sentiment in San Ignacio. When war finally comes, their simple, happy life is turned upside down along with the rest of the world.

Soon, Max, aided by Elizabeth, is drawn back into detective work to solve a murder that hits close to home, as well as deadly espionage activities on the coast of California. In doing so, Max must also finally deal with his own demons. 

Jones, dubbed "one of the jewels of the historical mystery scene" by the San Francisco Book Review, brings domestic drama, historical nuance, suspense, and action to this series as he did in his popular and critically acclaimed VIENNESE MYSTERY series, as well as in stand-alone thrillers such as Time of the Wolf, Basic Law, Ruin Value, and The Edit.