Khaos

Backstory and Setting

In 1975, a seven-year-old boy and his mother are pulled apart when she goes to rehab, and a pattern of neglect and abandonment begins. In a backstory woven through a mystery set in 2010, a devoted son watches his mother try and fail to fix her life. At the age of 18, his mother disappears, and he is taken in by a loveless father. After suffering a devastating senior year in high school, ending in a prom night from hell, a severely damaged young man disappears into society.

San Francisco, 2010

The Giants are in the playoffs, and the city is abuzz with hope. The tech industry is booming, everyone has a smartphone, and social media is complicating lives as people play fast and loose with their data.

Neighborhood and Characters

In the upscale neighborhood of Jordan Park, Melinda Carter--author of Plan B, a controversial best-selling book on how to attract and marry the perfect man--has misplaced her husband. Downtown, Jimmy Papadopoulos--an aged, destitute private investigator--gets the call to find him. Somewhere in the middle--a devotee of Plan B and its method--is found dead in Golden Gate Park.

Partnership and Investigation

His best days behind him, his partner long dead, Jimmy needs help working the case and finds it in Sam, an equally down-on-his-luck retired shoe salesman and drag queen. The unlikely but effective partnership is challenged by an evasive client whose main directive to her lovelorn readers is: Little white lies never hurt anyone.

The Lies and the Truth

The lies behind her husband's disappearance are nothing compared to the lies from Melinda's deeper past, and as the case progresses and they, their client, and the world engage in new technology to solve their problems, Jimmy and Sam find out how dangerous it can be to work in a world where the truth is becoming irrelevant.