Ray Vialoux is in trouble. Big trouble. And he needs private eye Marshall Grade's help.

Reluctantly, Grade agrees to meet. Over dinner in a Brooklyn restaurant, he learns that his former NYPD colleague owes money-a lot of money-to the wrong people. But the conversation is cut short by gunfire, and suddenly Ray is lying dead on the restaurant floor.

As Grade investigates the circumstances leading up to the murder, tracking down the drug dealers, bag men, bent cops, and mob players within Ray's orbit, it becomes clear there's far more to the killing than a gambling debt. Just who is responsible for Vialoux's death--and why? What secrets are his family hiding? And can Marshall find the answers before his own history marks him as the prime suspect?