Leonid McGill is back, in the third-and most enthralling and ambitious-installment in Walter Mosley's latestNew York Times- bestselling series.The economy has hit the private-investigator business hard, even forthe detective designated as "a more than worthy successor to PhilipMarlowe" (The Boston Globe) and "the perfect heir to Easy Rawlins" (TorontoGlobe and Mail).Lately, Leonid McGill is getting job offers only from the criminalshe's worked so hard to leave behind. Meanwhile, his life grows ever morecomplicated: his favorite stepson, Twill, drops out of school formysteriously lucrative pursuits; his best friend, Gordo, is diagnosedwith cancer and is living on Leonid's couch; his wife takes a new lover,infuriating the old one and endangering the McGill family; and Leonid'sgirlfriend, Aura, is back but intent on some serious conversations...So how can he say no to the beautiful young woman who walks into hisoffice with a stack of cash? She's an artist, she tells him, who'sescaped from poverty via marriage to a rich collector who keeps her on astipend. But she says she fears for her life, and needs Leonid's help.Though Leonid knows better than to believe every word, this isn't a jobhe can afford to turn away, even as he senses that-if his family'smisadventures don't kill him first-sorting out the woman's crooked talewill bring him straight to death's door.