Stray Cat Blues by Robert Bucchianeri

A missing big sister. A little girl all alone. Time is running out.
Can Max Plank, San Francisco’s P.I. Extraordinaire, untangle the mystery before all is lost.

When twelve-year-old Frankie steps onto his boat, Max has no idea that this cute, skateboarding time bomb will lead him into a mystery with a tangled web of secrets and lies involving small time hoods, corrupt politicians, paranoid hippies, and, most dangerously, his long time nemesis, a twisted casino operator at the heart of the city’s criminal trade.

As Max races to untangle the convoluted case and find Frankie’s big sister, the mayhem and dead bodies pile up. Finally, he realizes that the only way to get the whole truth involves risking his own life. But for Max Plank this is just the cost of doing business in the game he’s decided to play.