For his next hardboiled adventure, P.I. Frank Johnson looks into the puzzling disappearance of April Stringfellow, a local woman who never shows up at his office for her scheduled appointment. Her phone call to him ends abruptly, but he learns about her fears of a persistent stalker who is harassing her. He struggles to justify tracking down her whereabouts without receiving any compensation. Like all private investigators in the gumshoe racket, he wants to be paid for his efforts.

While handling his solvent clients' smaller cases, Frank tries to locate April whenever he has the time. She appears to have vanished into thin air. He cannot recover her motor vehicle or any other viable leads. The town sheriff's inaction fuels Frank's growing frustration and rage. She refuses to declare April a missing person despite his urging her to take more interest in her case.

The resolution to her case isn't what Frank hoped for. But he has to live with it just the same. It is a bitter pill to swallow. As he always does, Frank leans on his long-time friend and business partner, Gerald Peyton; his medical examiner wife, Dreema; and his brilliant but outspoken attorney, Robert Gatlin.

Critically acclaimed crime novelist James Crumley endorsed the P.I. Frank Johnson Mystery Series. "With a plot as complex as your grandmother's crocheted doilies, Mr. Lynskey creates a portrait of the rural hill country that rings as true as the clank of a Copenhagen can on a PBR can, as does his handle on guns, love, and betrayal. This novel is well worth the read and makes me want more."

1 New York Times bestselling author James Rollins states, "Ed Lynskey's P.I. Frank Johnson's books are as hard-bitten and hard-boiled as they come. The dialogue crackles with such sharpness that you'd swear sparks were jumping off the pages. And P.I. Frank Johnson is a character cut from the Tarantino mold: tough, wounded, conflicted, and badass."

New York Times bestselling author and Edgar Award-winning author Megan Abbott writes the P.I. Frank Johnson mystery series, which "bears the richest nicotine and bourbon stains of the hardboiled genre, yet also bristles with vitality. The plot sings, the characters are twisty and textured, and the violence is brutal but inevitable. These elements would be more than enough, yet Ed Lynskey offers so much more in the form of a perfectly pitched prose style that swings effortlessly from back-country grit to Appalachian poetry and back again."