Christopher Reynolds

Every city keeps secrets.
San Francisco simply hides them better.

When a violent explosion shatters the quiet of the Mission District in the middle of the night, Detective Marcus Romano is among the first to arrive. What initially appears to be an isolated act quickly unravels into something far more deliberate—an attack tied to the city’s art world, old money, and relationships that were never meant to be examined too closely.

Working alongside Detective Lena Cho, Romano begins pulling at threads that lead from gallery owners and investors to influential figures who move easily through San Francisco’s cultural and financial circles. The deeper the investigation goes, the clearer it becomes that the crime is not about a single victim, but about debts—financial, personal, and political—that powerful people have spent years keeping buried.

As witnesses hesitate, evidence disappears, and pressure mounts from every direction, Romano is forced to navigate a city where influence can shape the truth as easily as it can hide it. Solving the case will require patience, instinct, and the willingness to follow the facts even when they lead into rooms where detectives are not expected to ask questions.

Debts of the City is the second Marcus Romano novel—a tightly wound San Francisco investigation where power moves quietly and the truth is often the most dangerous discovery of all.