In a South End apartment house, beautiful young model Mau Tim Dani lies dead—murdered by an intruder. An old friend at Empire Insurance asks John Cuddy to investigate. The policy on the life of Mau Tim was half a million dollars; to the agency that represented her, she was worth every penny.
Daughter of a Vietnamese mother and an Italian-American father, Mau Tim was born Amatina Danucci—granddaughter of Boston’s most feared mob boss, Tommy “The Temper" Danucci. Now the family wants Cuddy to turn his insurance investigation into a hunt for her murderer. They even provide Cuddy with an assistant: Primo T. Zuppone, a man of sensitive tastes and subtleties, whose specialty is taking care of “situations.” With Primo as his leather-coated guardian angel, Cuddy goes to work on his suspects, from the owners of the modeling agency to Mau Tim’s last boyfriend, a slick, cynical advertising executive. But the clues are leading Cuddy in another direction—to a scenario of murder almost too terrible to imagine.....
“Taut and tough...the private-eye novel as it should be written...a story that hits the ground running....” —San Diego Union-Tribune
“The ending, as surprising as endings ever get, is rich with irony....”—Los Angeles Times
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