Investigation and Urban Fear in A City Owned

A true-crime account of a city under pressure

A City Owned by OJ Modjeska is a true-crime account, the first book in Murder By Increments. It follows an investigation into the deaths of women whose bodies are found beside Los Angeles roads and freeways. Its subject involves sexual violence and murder, with attention to an inquiry developing under the pressure of repeated discoveries and uncertainty about the person responsible.

The locations make the urban setting integral to the premise. Familiar routes through the city become places of discovery, while investigators seek to understand who is responsible for the repeated violence.

Suspicion complicates the inquiry

One troubling possibility emerges: the killer may have connections to law enforcement. That suspicion introduces an additional difficulty: investigators must consider whether their search reaches into a world they might otherwise regard as a source of assistance.

An arrest concerning the deaths of two college students across state lines offers another direction for the case. The development takes the inquiry beyond the roads and neighborhoods where the Los Angeles victims were found. For readers interested in the relationship between a city and a major investigation, the account brings those scales together: local fear, an expanding search, and a possible lead from elsewhere. The problem remains how to move from suspicion toward an explanation of the deaths.