Dragon Fruit

Santa Barbara PI Jaymie Zarlin enters the dangerous world of human trafficking to help a trans woman find her daughter in this taut and timely mystery.
 
In the dead of night, a panga boat lands on a Santa Barbara beach to offload drugs. But drugs are not all this boat carried. When Chucha Robledo arrives to collect her baby girl, she finds the boat empty save for a tiny silver medallion. She knows the police will be no help to her—as a Mexican immigrant, as a transgender woman, as a mother who attempted to smuggle her child into America. Fearing the worst, Chucha goes to the only person in town she can trust.
 
The unexplained loss of a loved one is a type of pain PI Jaymie Zarlin knows all too well. Promising to help Chucha, Jaymie dives into the abyss of human trafficking, and finds herself closer than ever to uncovering the truth about her own brother’s death. In this compelling mystery that “deals directly and effectively with important contemporary issues,” Jaymie must choose what can be jettisoned and what precious cargo must—at all costs—be saved (Booklist).