Everything looks different underwater. Even murder.

Los Angeles 1937. A nasty heat wave and crippling drought set the city on edge. LA desperately needs water, but Hollis Mulwray-the water department's chief engineer-needs answers. Before he'll build a new dam, he has to find out what happened to the old one. Years ago, the Van der Lip Dam collapsed in the middle of the night. More than five hundred people were killed. Trying to solve the mystery takes him to movie sets, nightclubs, and the true political center of the city: Catalina's Albacore Club. Along the way, Hollis discovers a vast conspiracy involving millions of dollars, dead bodies, and his powerful father-in-law, Noah Cross. The richly imagined backstory of a doomed man, Hollis shows that you can't outrun the past. Or the future.