Laura Swanson

Jeffrey Calhoun Suspense/Thriller

Laura Swanson is a neo-noir detective novel driven by observation, contradiction, and uneasy partnership. Laura Swanson is a private investigator in alternate history Victorian England whose talent lies in noticing what others instinctively smooth over—the pauses in conversation, the habits that betray intent, the lies people tell themselves before telling anyone else.
When Evan Holt collapses and dies in a coffee shop at dawn, the death is ruled a heart attack almost immediately. Laura knows better. Her certainty draws the reluctant attention of Detective Mark Bell a recently promoted homicide detective whose instincts are sound but untested. Where Laura operates on ruthless logic and long-earned cynicism, Bell still believes procedure can protect truth.
Forced together by circumstance and curiosity, Swanson and Bell form an uneasy alliance. Laura reconstructs the crime through behavioral analysis and deduction, while Bell navigates the institutional resistance that prefers simple answers. As they dig deeper, the murder reveals itself not as a single act, but as a sequence of quiet decisions—financial, emotional, and moral—that made Evan Holt disposable.
Written in a neo-noir tone with a Sherlockian analytical voice the novel explores trust between unlikely allies, the friction between logic and bureaucracy, and the loneliness of those who see too clearly. Together, Swanson and Bell chase a truth neither could reach alone—one that implicates not just a killer, but the system that allowed the murder to pass unnoticed.
Written in a neo-noir tone with a Sherlockian voice. The novel blends cold logic with moral exhaustion. It explores isolation, performative innocence, and the cost of seeing too clearly in a world that prefers comforting explanations. As Laura moves closer to the truth, she confronts not just a killer, but a system that relies on people like her to notice everything—while belonging nowhere.

Unfold