Ted Milo, until recently the Charles Dickens of obit writers, is dislodged from his carefree new life by a bizarre collision of homicides and hemorrhoids in the fancy Los Angeles suburb of Friendly Lake. Actually...not so friendly, Ted and his wife, Liv, soon discover. Ted has ditched his long newspaper career to embrace the gaudy noveau riche lifestyle he'd always ridiculed after inheriting a fortune from a distant relative. He is floating blissfully, contemplating the fruits of wealth, little on his fiftyish mind beyond bladder control, when a visit to a physician turns him into a sleuth with cold-blooded murders to solve. "You're doing this why, because the Navy SEALS aren't hiring?" chides Liv when learning she's now married to Sam Spade. "And your dream of playing center field for the Dodgers--dashed?" Every gumshoe requires a "tomato," though, and Liv is Ted's when bodies hit the slab in this twisty mystery that explores the warty underside of outwardly tranquil suburbia.