The world of Ben Bartholomew. It is a world of standover gangs and armed terrorists, a world in which a P.I. For hire must carry a gun if he wants to live beyond lunchtime. It is a world of religious fanatics, petty tyrants, spies and nightmares, which explodes with intrigue and danger when a corpse disappears from a sealed tomb. "The case of the vanishing corpse" is the ultimate locked-room mystery.