Seattle's newest homicide detective, Darlena Wilson, has gotten her first case. To say she has her hands full would be in very bad taste... because the body is missing both of its hands. She doesn't know it yet, but Dar is going to need the help of a couple of witches and Oz, the wizard. (After all, Seattle's nickname IS 'The Emerald City' ) One of the hands is found, but the other will be made into a Hand of Glory and Dar's first encounter with it doesn't go well. Now she has to risk her life and her love to stop a magician that is twice as crazy as all the other people Dar meets when she follows the trail of the Dead Man's Hand. She doesn't know what's worse, a washed up stage magician who claims dead people want him to shed his clothes, a dentist who is trying to get a date with her, or having to deal with the psychic effects of a potion brewed up by her two new friends, a couple of witches. In the mean time, she's got to figure out how to write up a report about all of these characters, some of whom are beyond weird and some who are trying to help her. A report that hopefully won't get her thrown into the loony bin before she catches her man. Oh, and did we mention somebody boiling a baby?