First Edition, First Printing hardcover with unclipped dust jacket, in very good condition. Light shelf wear to the jacket, and page block is slightly tanned, otherwise as unread. LW

Twenty-five-year-old tax inspector Leah Hunter, who made her debut in File Deceased (SMP, 1993), has returned. She hadn't planned to try her hand at crime-busting again, but when retired friend Dora presents her with a puzzle to solve and Leah still owes her a favor, she reluctantly agrees to take up the challenge. When Leah begins the investigation, she doesn't anticipate the trouble lying in wait for her. To find young Andy Howe would be nice, but not if they both end up in the same box. And Andy hasn't been seen since he went to a party thrown by music producer Dean Wilde. Now no one wants to talk about him, especially not to Leah, whose inquiries are further hampered by dishy Detective Sergeant Nicholls, who tries in vain to steer Leah away from danger. Making enemies comes easy as Leah begins to unravel an extremely dubious power network. And she needs to use all her wit and cunning to keep out of the way of some very vicious and determined people.

Feisty young tax inspector Leah Hunter investigates the torching of a rundown warehouse, an arson fire in which a harmless old woman dies and a crime for which a troubled teenager—who later dies in custody—is charged

When an old friend who works for the National Criminal Intelligence Service drops by to see Leah Hunter for a few days and then suddenly disappears, Leah launches her own inquiry into the mob her friend had been investigating.