In this crackerjack, twist-filled mystery played out on the winding streets of San Francisco, Aaron Asherfield is a close-to-down-and-out private eye, with three ex-wives and the alimony payments to prove it.
Troubled by his shady past and bleak future, Asherfield unwittingly stumbles into boardroom corruption and back-alley murder when he is hired to track down Roger Ellerbee, a successful business man in debt to "Mad Bad" LeRoy, a corrupt Berkeley councilman.
But before the search can progress very far, LeRoy is shot to death in front of Asherfield's astonished eyes. Even more perplexing, Ellerbee's beautiful wife Lauren informs Asherfield that Ellerbee has been missing for some time.
Asherfield's search for Roger Ellerbee introduces him to a number of California characters: the proprietor of a pornographic theater; a madam whose specialty is bondage; a sinister district attorney; a preacher with a Jewish dog.
With a strong setting, lively dialogue, and an engaging protagonist, David Berlinski has written a remarkably accomplished mystery.