In the second of three Artie books, set on the New York waterfront, Artie Cohen pursues the murder of a reporter on the docks of Red Hook.

Jack Santiago is famous for his investigative stories, for his ability to get under the skin of the rich and famous, and for his reporting on nuclear terrorism in New York. The city, he insists, is on the verge of an attack, an attack so sudden and secret that none of the preparations will make any difference. He is obsessed with suitcase nukes — tiny weapons concealed in bags easily carried into the city — and with the fact that 100,000 people will die of nuclear poisoning. One problem with Santiago is that he is found dead, on the night of the August 2003 blackout, when the lights go out up and down the east coast. The other problem is that he has made up the stories.

On the day the lights go down, Artie Cohen, still regretting the loss of Lily Hanes who left him, marries Maxine Crabbe, a long-time friend who once saved his ass in Disturbed Earth. He wants a life, kids, a home; with Maxie, he's convinced himself he can find it.

In the course of uncovering Santiago's killer, Artie also uncovers the ways in which information is regularly corrupted and turned into propaganda — something he knows about from his childhood in the Soviet Union. And, there's something else — a link between Santiago's former boss and Artie's neighbour, Ricky Tae, a black, gay man who is also eventually murdered. For Artie, the case is further complicated by Red Hook's coming development as the hot new New York neighbourhood, not to mention a complication in his own life; the return of Lily Hanes.