Mallory is back and facing a two-fisted whodunit: Who s responsible for the just-discovered lost novel by the celebrated author of The Maltese Falcon? Is it the master, Dashiell Hammett, himself, or a very cunning counterfeiter? And who s behind the shocking, suspicious demise of Roscoe Kane, a hard-drinking, hard-boiled crime-novel pioneer? Aptly enough, this one-two punch of a puzzle is the talk of Bouchercon, the famed convention where mystery scribes gather to honor (and murder?) their own. But Mallory may be the only one who s tired of talking. He s got a heavy-duty hunch, a hotel full of suspects, and a hard lesson to teach namely, you don t mess with a man s heroes. Chicago s dark side may be no place for armchair detectives, but Mallory s no stranger to true crime. And before he leaves the Windy City, he means to strike more than a few blows in defense of his fallen comrades and against the evil that men do."