Fourth of July, 1976. Tooey Walter, a young Chesapeake Bay waterman on Maryland's rural Eastern Shore, is hired to retrieve big shot Harris Bradnox's rebellious daughter Dee from The Block, Baltimore city's grimy and notoriously dangerous red-light district. Thrown into a menacing world of vice and violence, with hometown goon Clacker Herbertson on his tail, Tooey collides into a lineup of mind-blowing strangers, including: Salt Wade, Dee's murderous "manager" and his mysterious case; Dr. Merriman, the fallen from grace, drug-addled "Block-doc," and Amy Ruari, the red-headed waitress with a...