John Denson has always admired the classic hardboiled detectives Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe, but in his own private-eye work he is more of a soft-boiled sleuth—favoring screw-top wines and refusing to carry a gun.

The moment Pamela Yew walks into Denson’s office and introduces herself as a detective working for Coyote, the San Francisco Prostitutes Union, he is beguiled by her beauty and he quickly agrees to help her hunt for a homicidal pimp. The pimp, it seems, is hiding in Cayuse, Oregon, which just happens to be Denson’s home town. All Denson has to do is act as Pamela’s decoy by introducing her as his fiancée while she goes about her business.

Once he arrives home, though, Denson finds that Pamela Yew is working on a far more deadly game than vengeance—and that he is being used as more than an innocent decoy.