Playground for the rich, arena for the powerful, graveyard for the unlucky-welcome to Palm Springs!

For some, it's the pleasure capital of the world. For other, it's a city of last chances, a paradise on the edge of the desert. For soon-to-be-ex-cop Lynn Cutter, sweating out a disability pension, it could become a point of no return.

As a rule, Cutter wouldn't give a private investigator the time of day, but Breda Burrows is the exception to every rule. Sultry, blue-eyed, long-legged, and tough as nails, Breda can be very convincing, and she's convinced Cutter to be her guide through the glittering netherworld of Palm Springs-an explosive mix of silicone, Geritol, old money, and murder.

The trail begins with the monied socialite wife of a philandering husband. The wife doesn't care about her husband's infidelity, but she does want to know why he's made a secret deposit-at a sperm bank. What Cutter wants to know is the identity of the strange, violent man hubby is meeting in the desert-a man known only as the fugitive.