Mario Balzic, chief of the Rocksburg PD likes keeping his investigative hand in, especially when there's a fat fee involved such as the £50 an hour offered by lawyer Panagios Valcanas to check out a gun-shop burglary that might also be a scam involving the insurance company that Valcanas represents. But, nothing is quite as simple as it at first seems and Balzic, dogged by ill-health, finds himself in the thick of it with some dangerous customers to contend with. One of American literature's great masters of dialogue.' - Washington Post'