Spider's Cage sees the return of Martin Windrow, the detective first introduced to readers in The Damned Don't Die ("a super thriller" —Los Angeles Times). When Jodie O'Ryan, the country singer he adores, disappears after the death of her grandfather, a millionaire oil man, Windrow sets off on their trail. Strangers and storytellers cross his path: friendly tarantulas, a Verlaine-reading prostitute, an androgynous bodyguard, a pimp-entrepreneur-singer, a Salvadorean revolutionary, a car salesman hooked on tranquilizers, a cop who treats the common cold with cocaine cut with amphetamines ... Windrow travels from surprise to nightmare, and from body to body, up until the dark-as-night finale.