First-time sleuth takes on a powerful sex trafficking conspiracy.

Great for fans of L.A. Dobbs’s Telling Lies, Steven James’s Broker of Lies.

MYSTERY/THRILLER Throwaways: A Jake Savage Mystery Elliott Light | Bancroft press 236p, hardcover, $25, ISBN 978-1-610-88597-3

This satisfying series starter from Light (author of the Shep Harrington Smalltown Mysteries series) tackles sex trafficking and what it takes to expose the powerful with a mystery ripped from the headlines about the likes of Jeffrey Epstein. Jake Savage grew up pained by injustice, having found his mother murdered when he was four years old by a killer who never was caught. Perhaps that’s why, at 27, he can’t let injustice go, even when he’s being warned away—and at risk of exposing the wealthy and powerful. One day a shadow casts over Jake while he scuba dives as a research volunteer to photograph lionfish in the Gulf waters off Key west. Above, he sees a young girl’s body drifting over the reef, face down, her hair fanned out. Now, in the first book in a new series, Jake turns amateur sleuth, seeking to identify the girl and see that her killer does not go unpunished.

In addition to the natural tension of the mystery, Light wrings suspense from society’s insistence that some stones should go unturned. “What good is the truth going to do you or anyone else if the police don’t have the balls to do anything about it?” asks Jake’s adopted mother, Ethel, chillingly, while the pointedly unmotivated Sergeant Detective Trent Murphy eventually warns Jake to not investigate, despite tantalizing clues like caviar in the victim’s stomach. Engaging friction between Jake and a surprise investigation partner keeps the pages turning, after Ethel insists that Tess, her caregiver, accompany him. The pair doesn’t see eye to eye, but they make key breakthroughs and even, despite Tess’s engagement, exhibit signs of attraction certain to be explored in future books.

The unlikely duo faces grave danger as they trace evidence to Giles Horan, a wealthy entertainer of the rich and famous, whose extravagant lifestyle has been set up to cast away the people it uses — the “throwaways” of the outraged title. The well-crafted plot turns on missing girls, a stolen laptop, a welcome sense of outrage, and a first-time detective with a rousing dedication to seeing that justice is served, at whatever cost. Lovers of sharply told mysteries that target injustice will want more.

Cover: A | Design & typography: A | Illustrations: – Editing: B+ | Marketing copy: A