Masao Masuto is a Nisei detective on the Beverly Hills police force- a cultured stranger in an even stranger land of traffic-clogged freeways, artery-clogging fast food . . . and brutal murders. In "The Case of the Sliding Pool", the collapse of a swimming pool exposes the skeleton of a man, buried in the pool's foundation for thirty years. Determined to learn the identities of both the victim and his killer, Masuto finds himself locked in a game of wits with a brilliant murderer. In "The Case of the Kidnapped Angel", Hollywood sex goddess Angel Barton has been kidnapped. Although Angel returns home unharmed a short time later, her husband, Mike-who left to pay her ransom- is not so lucky. Seeking the reasons for Barton's death, Masuto is soon drawn into a complex world of secret passions, bewildering illusions . . . and increasingly savage murders.