Day One

Day One is the third book in the Skin Kadash mystery series.

Publication and Reception

Published in 2010, Day One was a finalist for the 2011 Spotted Owl Award [1] and was included in the Best of 2010 list by the Portland Mercury. [2]

General Information

Day One is the most structurally-complex in the Skin Kadash series, featuring five point-of-view characters (with Skin as the primary) and a non-chronological narrative which follows two related storylines separated in time by four years. Day One is preceded by Chasing Smoke and the short stories short stories The Missus, Coffee, Black, and Sunlight Nocturne, and followed by the short story The Last Ship and the book County Line.

Jacket Copy

Born and raised in southern Oregon farm country, Ellie Spaneker flees her home and abusive husband, her trail dogged by a brutal ex-cop in the hire of her vengeful father-in-law.

In Portland, retired homicide detective Skin Kadash fills his idle days drinking coffee and searching for Eager Gillespie, a teen runaway of special interest as the only witness in a troublesome and long unsolved murder. Eager, meanwhile, is on his own, grifting and working the angles in the homeless underground, oblivious to the unfolding events which will force him to face the consequences of a crime, and a longing, which has haunted him for years.

These disparate trails converge at a bloody standoff, the harrowing end of a string of violence which stretches from the high desert to the streets of Portland.

Major Characters

• Skin Kadash
• Ruby Jane Whittaker
• Susan Mulvaney
• Eager Gillespie
• Ellie Spaneker

Awards and Nominations

• Finalist: 2011 Spotted Owl Award