Generations of murder, greed and deception come home to roost in time
for the most shocking conclusion ever in a Lew Archer novel. At first
glance, it's an open-and-shut missing persons case: a headstrong
daughter has run off to be with her hothead juvenile delinquent
boyfriend. That is until this bush-league Bonnie & Clyde kidnap Stephen
Hackett, a local millionaire industrialist. Now, Archer is offered a
cool 100 Gs for his safe return by his coquettish heiress mother who has
her own mysterious ties to this disturbed duo. But the deeper Archer
digs, the more he realizes that nothing is as it seems and everything is
questionable. Is the boyfriend a psycho ex-con with murder on the brain
or a damaged youngster trying to straighten out his twisted family tree?
And is the daughter simply his nympho sex-kitten companion in crime or
really a fragile kid, trying to block out horrific memories of bad acid
and an unspeakable sex crime?