He thinks his sleuthing days are over, but when Julia Wolf, a former acquaintance, is found dead, her body riddled with bullets, Nick can't resist making a few enquiries.
Clyde Miller Wynant, Julia's lover and boss, has disappeared. Everyone is after him, from the cops, and his lawyer, to his cool cookie, blond ex-wife. But Nick is not convinced Wynant is the murderer and when he finds a junked-up hoodlum with a careless attitude to guns in his bedroom, it's only the beginning of his troubles.