Years after the personal tragedy that scarred his life, Private Investigator John March lives a twilight existence in Manhattan. He is tough and ruthlessly efficient in his professional life, yet introspective and vulnerable when it comes to his relationships with women. And he struggles daily to maintain a tenuous armed truce with his memories.Marchs latest case threatens to shatter that brittle peace: his client is a banker who is being blackmailed, and the mans beautiful wife is in the firing line. Marchs prime suspect is Gerard Nassouli, a monstrous manipulator who vanished years ago. Is Nassouli still a fugitive, or has the law - or one of his many enemies - finally caught up with him? Did he die, or was the vanishing act just one more devilish ploy?Whoever is behind the blackmail is not afraid of killing and March is going to risk everything, including a fragile new happiness as he plunges into a feverish world of greed, corruption and murder.