When the Thrill Is Gone (Hardcover) by Walter Mosley

Leonid McGill is back, in the third-and most enthralling and ambitious-installment in Walter Mosley's latest "New York Times"- bestselling series.
The economy has hit the private-investigator business hard, even for the detective designated as "a more than worthy successor to Philip Marlowe" ("The Boston Globe") and "the perfect heir to Easy Rawlins" (Toronto " Globe and Mail"). Lately, Leonid McGill is getting job offers only from the criminals he's worked so hard to leave behind. Meanwhile, his life grows ever more complicated: his favorite stepson, Twill, drops out of school for mysteriously lucrative pursuits; his best friend, Gordo, is diagnosed with cancer and is living on Leonid's couch; his wife takes a new lover, infuriating the old one and endangering the McGill family; and Leonid's girlfriend, Aura, is back but intent on some serious conversations...
So how can he say no to the beautiful young woman who walks into his office with a stack of cash? She's an artist, she tells him, who's escaped from poverty via marriage to a rich collector who keeps her on a stipend. But she says she fears for her life, and needs Leonid's help. Though Leonid knows better than to believe every word, this isn't a job he can afford to turn away, even as he senses that-if his family's misadventures don't kill him first-sorting out the woman's crooked tale will bring him straight to death's door.