When her best friend Maggie’s death is ruled suicide, Jude needs a better explanation for such a huge loss. Beautiful Maggie, living in an L.A. mansion and fascinated by old Hollywood, had just gotten early acceptance into Brown. Jude tries to find out about her friend’s final hours, certain something sinister happened. Chinese American Maggie was the center of a diverse, otherwise disparate group of young adults who, Jude realizes, don’t have much in common without her. Jude likes Joey, her not-quite boyfriend (Jude has trust issues, the origins of which are gradually revealed), and laid-back surfers Hank and Effie, but not the others. She decides to investigate what everyone was doing the night Maggie died. The style is crisp and tight in this noir-inspired work, full of sharp, vivid descriptions, skillfully drawn characters, and a subtle sense of foreboding. The wonderfully realized L.A. setting juxtaposes magical light and grittiness; struggle with excess, material and otherwise. Maggie and Jude’s lives were opposites, too, and yet they clicked. Jude’s search stirs up memories (Maggie is the only friend she told about being raped when younger) and brings the complications and imperfections of being human into relief. (Age 14 and older)

"Beautiful clothes, bad habits, ugly secrets: Sherri L. Smith probes the vulnerable underbellies of a lot of toothy sharks in this page-turning California noir."--E. Lockhart, New York Times bestselling author of We Were Liars

Bad things happen everywhere. Even in the land of sun and roses.

When Jude's best friend is found dead in a swimming pool, her family calls it an accident. Her friends call it suicide. But Jude calls it what it is: murder. And someone has to pay.

Now everyone is a suspect--family and friends alike. And Jude is digging up the past like bones from a shallow grave. Anything to get closer to the truth. But that's the thing about secrets. Once they start turning up, nothing is sacred. And Jude's got a few skeletons of her own.

In a homage to the great noir stories of Los Angeles, award-winning author Sherri L. Smith's Pasadena is a tale of love, damage and salvation set against the backdrop of California's City of Roses.