On vacation in San Francisco for personal reasons and to conduct a routine background check, Leslie Crow's ethics and grit come under threat. Her spirit is invigorated by a foreign diplomat's offer of vengeance. Meanwhile, Matt Grudge's skip trace through a tour of Portland's sprawling strip joints clouds his instincts with desire, and reveals a past he can't forget. Their paths merge to oppose a cunning and vicious adversary hell-bent on recovering his employer's secrets, and exterminating two private eyes called the Grunge Operatives.

Matt Grudge and Leslie Crow, disenchanted private investigators with an affinity for the alternative lifestyle of the nineties, dubbed the Grunge Operatives, probe a murder that hits them where they live and breathe; the killing of the tattoo artist and proprietress of the parlor where their first tats were inked. This Special Edition contains illustrations by Daniel Cooney, and a bonus short story that introduces a key supporting character in book II of the Alternative Investigations series, The Grunge Operatives.