Dishonor Thy Father

A 15-year-old Iranian girl is viciously attacked by her father for holding a boy's hand. In running to escape certain death, she undertakes a dangerous journey to a new land with unfamiliar customs, where she must hide the truth from everyone she meets. 

Twenty years later, amid racial tensions in a Los Angeles hospital, a female Muslim doctor is murdered, sparking a controversial police investigation. The lead investigator, Detective Michael Tucci, finds himself compromising both his job and his life as he embroils himself in an affair with the beautiful Dr. Tara White, the victim's associate, who could be the killer's next target.

Which suspect would have had a reason to kill her colleague, Marika, and possibly even Tara herself: the distinguished neurosurgeon who was Marika's mentor, jealous of her youth and ambition; the rebuffed shy resident who once dated her; Marika's secret lover or his bitter wife; Marika's fundamentalist cousin, angry with her modern ways; any of the volatile protestors, picketing too many foreigners taking their jobs; or someone Marika knew, returning from her hidden past?

Inspired by the real-life issue of honor killings, Dishonor Thy Father is a multicultural thriller spanning three decades and two continents that boldly explores issues of ethnicity, sexism, spirituality, and social mores in today's complex and heated political environment.