[Alex Peres 05] • Losers Weepers

Shortly after beautiful, slightly wild, 17-year old Zoe Catlett shocks her family with the news she is a lesbian, they receive a phone call from a man asking for a million dollars in ransom.

Zoe has indeed gone missing, but her step mother is convinced the "kidnap" is a ploy to get money from Zoe's father, who has threatened not to send her to acting school instead of the Ivy League college he prefers for her. So the stepmother informs the caller, "We don't have a million dollars handy, so I'm afraid you'll just have to keep her."

Fortunately, Zoe's grandmother is more sensible, and contacts Private Detective Alex Peres for help. Alex agrees and begins to look into the case but her attention is soon diverted by the suicide of a dear friend. But is it suicide? As facts come to light, murder seems equally possible.

As Alex stretches herself thin, looking into both cases, she realizes that they have many coincidental instances that seem to connect. Family histories overlap. Two suspects figure high in both cases. And a lovely young socialite is connected to two older women, all three with good reason to hate Zoe's father and Alex's friend!

Losers Weepers is Alex's most complex and emotionally difficult double case. Can she solve the one without doing irreparable harm to those involved in the other?