Since 1934, the Village Vanguard in New York's Greenwich Village has hosted the foremost in live jazz, folk music, and comedy. Its owner, Max Gordon, has now written a personal history of his club and the hundreds of entertainment legends who have played there. Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Lenny Bruce, Woody Allen, Woodie Guthrie, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Josh White, Pete Seeger--Max has stories about all of them. And what stories As Nat Hentoff says in his introduction, "A good many so-called professional writers have not done nearly so well."

Life is a humdrum three stars out of five for travel writer Katherine "Kit" McCormick. That changes forever when a dead body turns up in her office. As the ex-lover of the murdered developer's wife, Kit becomes the prime suspect-and the killer's next target. Kit works with the closeted Detective Kasey Chakarian to unravel the knot of corruption and shameful secrets, but every clue leads to further entanglements...and mortal danger.