The Last Escort

The Last Escort (A Val Buchanan Investigation, Book 10) 1929, New Orleans. Smoke, brass, and the end of an era. Ten years after hanging up his badge, ex-Pinkerton Val Buchanan is restless. The papers talk of bank robberies and Tommy guns, of armored trucks and men who think they can outrun the Crash. Then a telegram comes from Chicago: a request for "consultation" on a botched convoy job that left three guards dead. In the swelter of New Orleans, Buchanan finds a city drowning in music and corruption. The FBI wants headlines. The Pinkertons want relevance. The truth wants blood. Partnered with young Agent Nellie Torres, Buchanan walks the thin line between loyalty and survival as he tracks a gang led by the scarred outlaw Lobo Devere—a man who believes the banks built the guns that kill the poor. When the next armored run rolls at dawn, Buchanan climbs aboard. What follows is a gun-metal symphony of speed, betrayal, and smoke on the rails—a final ride for the old detective who never quite learned how to stop chasing ghosts. ?? The Last Escort closes the acclaimed Val Buchanan Investigation series with a hard-boiled elegy of duty, corruption, and the cost of truth at the dawn of the modern age.