Riordan's Desk

In this audio fiction presentation of the novel The Dead Beat Scroll, private investigator August Riordan returns to San Francisco to avenge the death of his friend and one-time partner, Chris Duckworth. Duckworth has taken over Riordan’s old business, his old office, and even his old apartment, and Riordan suspects Duckworth’s death is linked to the missing-person case he was working when he died.

An alluring young woman named Angelina hired Duckworth to look for her half-sister, but what Riordan finds instead is a murderous polyamorous family intent on claiming a previously unknown manuscript from Beat writer Jack Kerouac.

Following clues from Duckworth and a trail of mutilated bodies left by the family, Riordan soon realizes that avenging his partner will first involve recovering the manuscript—then saving Angelina and himself from kidnap, torture, and death. As the bodies pile up, Riordan must work with old allies and enemies to untangle Duckworth’s last case before time runs out.
In Chapter 1, Riordan makes a late-night visit to a massage parlor.

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Chris updates August on his adventures from the night before.

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Riordan finds Winnie's pack and repurposes the contents.

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Candy from StrangersCaroline Stockwell has a secret: she and her best friend Monica are “cam girls." Soliciting cash donations and gifts via Amazon.com wish lists from anonymous admirers, the young women have put up a web site featuring still photographs, video and a blog to help pay their way through art college. But when Caroline goes missing and her mother Ellen engages jazz bass-playing PI August Riordan to find her, Riordan discovers her secret and it appears to everyone that someone she met through the web site is responsible for her disappearance.

Set against the real-world backdrop of Internet predators using social networking sites to find and ensnare their victims, Candy from Strangers is the first novel to explore the phenomenon of teenagers and young adults displaying themselves online in exchange for material favors—often without their parents’ knowledge—which some are calling the newest form of prostitution.
In Chapter 1, Riordan and Duckworth's gig at the venerable House of Shields bar in San Francisco doesn't go exactly as planned.

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Winnie has a final showdown with the Winemaker.

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