1938. One hot August day a turncoat Chicago accountant, in charge of maintaining twin sets of books and financial records capable of bringing down the Mafia from coast to coast, stumbles into Matt Jagger's Santa Barbara office. The well-dressed stranger sits down facing Matt, a knife buried to the hilt in his back. The man slumps forward and dies...without saying a word. One thousand dollars in bloody hundred dollar bills flutters from the corpse's hand, possible evidence of his murder, but there is no one else nearby to claim it. Matt decides the money must be his intended fee. Even though...

Patty Dallas lies dead on a Santa Barbara dock, her party dress hiked up around her hips. Her body wrapped in seaweed, the target of hungry seagulls and sand flies. Private detective Matt Jagger, a disgraced and cashiered Los Angeles cop, pulls her dress back down with the hook which now replaces a bullet-riddled left hand. It's the frenzied 1930's, where anything and everything can happen. Hollywood parties and passions run wild, extravagant weekends and gambling ships are the rage, and there's a growing force of bad cops who willingly do much of the dirty work and clean-up for the Mafia in...