Back in the day, Raymond "Strong" Carlisle made his mark as an ace sideman blowing baritone sax alongside all the biggest names in R&B. Now he lies in the grass outside his home, shot dead from behind and pelted by the heedless rain that mingles with his own blood. He is the first official casualty of a dirty war being lethally waged for control of Rio Mirada: a low-rent, "city in transition" of clashing subcultures at the northern tip of the San Francisco Bay, beset by drug dealers, arsonists, squatters...and now murder.

Detective Dennis Murchison - white, weary, homegrown - has two possible perps: Arlie Thigpen, a teenage lieutenant in the crack-and-smack army of a local dealer; and Toby Marchand, a straight-arrow, old-school jazz horn player with some big shoes to fill: those of his father, Strong Carlisle. The smart money says the shooter is Arlie, a two-time loser who tangled with Carlisle the day he died. But too many things about Toby - his shaky alibi, suspicion that he's not really who he claims to be, the fact that his girlfriend witnessed the killing but can't remember it - have Murch doing a double take.

They say there are three sides to the truth. But in Rio Mirada, honesty is in short supply. What's plentiful are people with angles, hidden agendas, and all the reasons in the world to make sure the murder of Strong Carlisle remains a mystery. And the harder Murchison pushes for answers, the clearer it becomes that this single, brutal homicide is just the tip of an inverted iceberg, casting its massive shadow over a town where small-time crime and big-time corruption are about to collide...with explosive consequences.