Detective Matt Payne, newly promoted to Sergeant and assigned to Homicide, finds himself in the middle of three major assignments. The first, a fatal shooting at a fast-food restaurant, seems simple, but rapidly becomes complicated. The second begins complicated and only gets more so, as Payne becomes involved with a local guru who has fled the country, leaving behind a mummified body of his girlfriend in a trunk. And, as if that weren't enough, the self-absorbed star of a series of improbable police movies comes into town - and it is his presence that will complicate Payne's life most of all. Filled with colour and detail and plots as real as the headlines, this is a riveting novel of the men and women who put their lives on the line, from the cop on the beat to the commissioner himself.