Somebody has taken a shot at Stanley Bentworth in a hit-and-run drive-by, and the soft-boiled detective doesn’t know who wants him dead or why. Then, when a stranger who resembles Stanley is gunned down in broad daylight, Stanley wonders which of them was the intended victim.

The wise-cracking, hard-drinking former homicide detective finds himself drawn into the murder investigation when Georgia, his double’s widow, asks him to take the case. She believes that the killers will be gunning for her next in the most hostile of corporate takeovers.

If Stanley takes the case, he puts himself back in the line of fire. But if he fails to crack it, Georgia could be next on the list.

His investigation charts an unlikely journey into the worlds of online pornography, an infamous cat burglar from days past, and buried treasure. In the process he learns about a long-ago legacy that he never knew was meant for him.