When Christine Mallard finds her husband, Detective Zeke Mallard, brutally murdered in their own garage, it is up to Zeke’s partner, rookie Detective Richard Lanslow, to solve the murder. In tandem with his new partner, veteran Detective Dean Brooks (a former detective in the Los Angeles Police Department), Lanslow begins an investigation. There are no clues, only the repeatedly stabbed body. Lanslow’s investigation soon reveals his former partner’s off-duty life is quite different than what the young detective had imagined. There is a beautiful young girl, and a jealous lover who quickly becomes a prime suspect—a young, street-savvy black man named Andrew White who harbors a deep hatred of white cops. We readers know, however, that Andrew has only witnessd the crime, not committed it, and that Lanslow and Brooks are on the wrong trail. And we even know the killer’s first name.
Who is the man we know only as "Dorian," who later commits a second murder which, through bizarre circumstances, actually increases the detective’s suspicion of Andrew White? And who are the strange characters with whom Dorian consorts, including the mysterious "little man," beset with horrible dreams; the worrying giant named Conrad; the pudgy sage named Gary; and the lesbian named Linda?
Things are not what they seem in this intricately woven plot.With the help of a famous criminologist, Detective Lanslow begins to grow skeptical of how the theory of Zeke’s murder case has been constructed. Acting on the advice of the professor, the case takes a turn that even Lanslow cannot believe, despite the evidence he and Brooks have collected—and comes to a crashing, jaw-dropping conclusion.
