The second wacky comedic murder romp for Hollywood film detective Valentino

Valentino wants to keep The Oracle, his beloved run-down movie palace, from being condemned before it even reopens, but murder keeps intruding into his otherwise quiet life. At a gala party held in memory of screen legend Greta Garbo, he’s having fun until the host, a hotshot developer named Matthew Rankin, tells Valentino about a certain letter from Garbo to his late wife. She and Garbo had been…close.

Such a letter is of great interest to a film archivist like Valentino, but the the plot thickens when Rankin tells Val that his assistant, Akers, is using this letter to blackmail him. Val is appalled by the thought of blackmail…but that letter sounds juicier all the time. Returning to Rankin’s mansion after the party, Val finds Rankin sitting at his desk with a pistol in his hand, looking at Akers’s dead body on the floor.

Valentino’s in a quandary. He’d love to see that letter, but he can’t. He’s gotten his girlfriend—who works for the police—in trouble, so his love life is, pardon the expression, shot to hell. Worse yet, the building inspector has kicked him out of his unfinished living space in the Oracle, so he takes his life in his hands and moves in with his eccentric mentor, the elderly, insomniac Professor Broadhead. No love, no sleep, no letter—life isn’t fair!

In this first paperback edition of Loren Estleman’s signature PI series, Amos Walker, the quintessential hard-boiled detective, proves that he’s mortal after all. Jeff Starzek, an old friend who smuggles cigarettes for a living, saves Walker’s life, getting him to the hospital after he’s taken a bullet in the leg. A month later, still convalescing, Walker gets a panicked phone call from Starzek’s sister. Jeff is missing. One of the few leads is a Homeland Security agent who’s after Starzek, in connection with a counterfeiting operation that may have terrorist ties.

Though Walker doubts Starzek is a terrorist, he finds treasury paper at a church run by Starzek’s brother. Then Starzek’s brother disappears too. Back to square one, Walker follows his best hunch, driving Starzek’s usual cigarette route along the Lake Huron shore, and finally gets a solid lead on the paper hangers. But before Walker can break the case, someone tries to shoot him—and he’s accused of murder. Walker will need all of his intestinal fortitude, injured leg notwithstanding, to stay alive long enough to figure out who’s doing what to whom, in time to save his friend.