When the phone rings long after midnight, it spells trouble of the lethal kind for Dallas private eye Ed Earl Burch in a gritty and relentless hard-boiled thriller that races from the gleaming towers of Houston to the stark desert mountains of the Texas Big Bend country and northern Mexico. Burch is a cashiered homicide detective with bad knees, a wounded liver and an empty bank account. He's been hired to protect an old flame after the disappearance of her husband, a high-flying Houston financier who ripped off his clients, including some deeply unsavory gentlemen from New Orleans. It's a simple job that goes wrong fast, plunging Burch into a ruthless contest where nothing and nobody can be trusted. Money and sex tempt him to break his own rules-twin temptations served up by the old flame, a rangy strawberry blonde with a violent temper and a terminal knack for larceny and betrayal. When his best friend gets murdered by hired muscle in Dallas, Burch blames himself and grimly sets out for vengeance

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