Los Angeles in the late 1940s is a city of promise and prosperity, but not for former fighter pilot Dix Steele. To his mind nothing has come close to matching "that feeling of power and exhilaration and freedom that came with loneness in the sky." He prowls the foggy city night---bus stops and stretches of darkened beaches and movie houses just emptying out--seeking solitary young women. His funds are running out and his...