Remember a Hampton that never was, before cell phones, unleaded gas and cable TV. The world wide web was a spider's trap that snared luckless souls. The seven cities of Tidewater were the densely packed seven buroughs of the 'Roads.' The towers were higher. The crowds were thicker. The streets were grittier and every vice was available on twice as many corners. Enter Dexter Finn, an out of touch, pill popping, dope smoking, skirt chasing P.I. who punches first and asks questions later. Page one opens, "I hated Mexico. It stunk. Every gully swarmed with horseflies and an honest man had two days to live. It was early afternoon in September '73. I ducked." The tale begins as the Fagan case closes, with an execution. It's a bad day for Dexter Finn, too. His next opens on page nine with a ray of hope. However, the ghosts of the 'Pretty Boy' Fagan chase and his own demons haunt him and return to bite him in the ass by the novel's end. Finn's willing blindness to the obvious make him a victim of himself at the cost of his friends' and flames' lives and a few others just as lucky. Along the way, a few of this burg's sordid little secrets spill and business goes on as usual.