Jack Liffey's transition to the unexpected vocation of private investigator is complete with a client who desperately begs him to find her runaway teenage son but only under certain conditions such as not involving her estranged husband and accepting her half-truths. Knowing this case will lead to chaos, Jack is nevertheless morally compelled to find the boy. Of course, in short order, calamity ensues.

A group of thugs, as ludicrous as they are menacing, break into Jack's condo and handcuff his girlfriend to his bed while covering her in deodorant for reasons passing understanding. This threat leads the private detective to take his precocious twelve-year-old daughter, Maeve, along with him on his search that leads him from a doomsday cult to a toxic chemical threat that looms over the city Los Angeles.

The Jack Liffey series takes readers deep into the many Los Angeles ethnic communities, tribal enclaves, and religious cultures that sometimes co-exist, sometimes clash, but always surprise. Fans of Elmore Leonard will fall deep into the fast-paced, unpredictable, and dangerous world John Shannon creates.