With outlaws wrecking havoc left and right, a cow town in Texas is on the brink of becoming a ghost town. That's when it's time to call in Chicago-based Pinkerton agent Ash Tallman and his partner Vivian Valentine. Going undercover as a handsome, charming drifter, Ash is always ready with his gun and popular with the ladies. And the lovely, vivacious Viv plays the role of a fervent evangelist, offering salvation-with the promise of a sweeter reward-to any sinner who can give her clues to the whereabouts of the man so bent on revenge he gladly kills anyone who crosses his path.
But this outlaw has never before encountered the likes of Ash Tallman.
One of the most likable rogues in mystery history. The Bitish-Roman coins had been around for centuries, so when they disappear from a local museum, Lovejoy has a more than passing interest in finding them. Abandoning his usual pursuits of good buys and willing women, Lovejoy finds himself in the much less agreeable company of one Dandy Jack, the sinister Rink, and the lovely, treacheerous Nicole. They lead him on a merry chase through a countryside filled with heather and danger. A superb tdour through the glittering and greedy world of antiques.
A conscience can weigh a PI down more than the heaviest firearm—and get her into more trouble too. It’s that nagging conscience that makes V. I. Warshawski agree to fill in as coach for the girls’ basketball team at her South Chicago alma mater—which in turn leads her to the headquarters of By-Smart, the global retail empire where V. I. hopes to get some desperately needed funds for the struggling squad.
But conscience seems to be in short supply at By-Smart… with the exception of Billy Bysen, the earnest teenage grandson of the chain’s gruff, tightfisted founder.
And when Billy disappears—along with a mysterious document much desired by By-Smart’s management team—V. I. is hurled onto a twisted, body-strewn path that runs through Chicago’s dirtiest places and reveals some of its dirtiest secrets.
