Arthur Conan Edwards—Ace—a private investigator in Dallas, Texas, winds up in the cross-hairs of a killer.

A phone call at three in the morning from his old friend, Jake Adams, changes Ace's life. His Dallas enterprise normally involves surveillance of dallying husbands and wives. He'd dodged more than one angry spouse, but now he's dodging bullets.

Jake hires Ace to find the arsonist who torched his house in Cisco, but this case soon becomes more than simple arson. A search through the home's smoking remains uncovers two charred bodies.

Ace's adventures, from Dallas to historic Eastland County and back, include romance, murder, and the antics of his two cats, Striker and Sweeper.