Gil Rodrigues, private eye, was in a tight spot. His close friend David Chang had been murdered, apparently in a botched carjacking attempt on a quiet street in a peaceful LA suburb, just doors from a Buddhist temple.

But David's daughter Sabrina was sure she knew better. The circumstances were wrong. The neighborhood was wrong. And no one could explain her dad's odd behavior in the preceding few days, to say nothing of the mysterious phone calls he had made.

Sure that the police are taking the easy way out, Sabrina brings her suspicions to Gil. He reluctantly agrees to take the case even though his specialty is insurance fraud, not homicide.

As Gil hacks through a confusing thicket of evidence in the racial and ethnic mix of Southern California, we meet a lively cast of characters. There's Quon, the suave diplomat, Lt. Hara, the homicide professional in charge, Jeff Ming, David's worldly boss, and Diana, Gil's beautiful girlfriend and David's sister.

It is only when Gil and Diana find themselves under suspicion for David's murder that Gil goes all out to find the killer. He exacts a diabolical revenge-something he does with both relish and style. Readers will love the shocking solution to this fast-paced story.

Drawing on his own varied experiences as a real-life private eye and former Army intelligence analyst, author Virgil Jose shows us the underside of international commerce-the legal, and the not-so-legal. We learn how a private eye exposes insurance fraud and uses sources as elementary as the public library or county recorder to help solve a murder. And we learn how high-tech American products can end up in the hands of potential enemies, something our government would like to prevent whenever possible.