Rachel Knight's Los Angeles

The Biltmore Hotel: Rachel Knight's glamorous home. "The sheer beauty of the hotel lobby struck me afresh: the stained glass set into the soaring dome ceiling, the ornately cut Lalique chandelier, the plushness of the huge oriental rugs spread over dark henna-colored marble floors. Walking into the lobby always felt like I'd been enfolded in the embrace of a Rubenesque duchess."

Engine Company Number 28: Location for Rachel's illicit lunch with the coroner's investigator. "An LA staple for over twenty years, the restaurant in a restored firehouse is still a popular spot. The original firehouse that had stood on the same spot in 1912 was now restored with mahogany booths, brick floors and pressed tin ceilings—and the original fireman's pole."
Photo credit: © Engine Co. No. 28

The Pacific Dining Car: Site for Rachel's first lunch date with Graden. "The Pacific Dining Car was a real old railroad dining car that had been converted into an intimate, Frank Sinatra/Dean Martin style restaurant with great lobster, steak and one of the best bars in town. The pin dot lighting made the bottles glow like jewels in the cool darkness and the bartender, in his shirtsleeves and apron was backlit, making him look like a painting from the 50's come to life."

Charlie O's: Rachel, Bailey and Toni's favorite place. "Charlie O's wasn't swanky. It was small, with cottage cheese style ceilings that'd been darkened by the smoke of a million cigarettes back in the day when that was still allowed. The walls were lined with portraits of jazz greats like Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, and McCoy Tyner. A lively painting of the exterior of Charlie O's that'd been done by a veteran cocktail waitress hung at the end of the wall near the back door where the regulars entered."

The Criminal Courts Building: Rachel's office and home away from home. "From my perch on the eighteenth floor, I could see all way from the main cop shop, the Police Administration Building, to the theaters at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and all the streets and sidewalks in between. The irony of being in the middle of those two extremes still made me smile."

The Los Angeles County Men's Jail: A place D.A.'s don't usually go. Which is why Rachel wears a costume. "Less than five miles south of the office buildings of downtown Los Angeles, but the imposing monstrosity of a building—the largest jail in the world—enveloped everything within a one mile radius. Across the street, seedy but brightly painted and lit signs for bail bondsman crowded next to each other, shouting out colorful names: the Ace of Bail, Bad Boy Bail, Discreet Bail Bonds."