Parker's third thriller is a powerful, unforgettable story of murder and corruption told in prose as sparkling and tough as any devotee of the hard-boiled tradition could wish, a tale that fulfills all the promise of his smash debut, Laguna Heat. After a brief and unpleasant stay in a Mexican jail, ex-cop Jim Weir returns to Newport Beach, Calif., for a joyful reunion with his mother and his sister, Ann, both activists in a campaign to stop rapacious developers from destroying their city. Joy turns quickly to sorrow when Ann, pregnant at last after she and her husband, Jim's former police partner and best friend, Ray Cruz, have tried for years to have a child, is found raped and brutally stabbed hours after Jim's arrival. Evidence quickly mounts to indicate that Ann was having an affair and may have been murdered by a member of the police force.