This is a "Deets Shanahan" mystery. When seventy-something Indianapolis PI Dietrich 'Deets' Shanahan receives a call from Jack Wenders, his former commanding officer in Korea, inviting him to Mexico to discuss a case, Shanahan accepts, hopeful that feisty girlfriend Maureen might join him and help him forget a particularly nasty case that almost got him killed. But Wenders' shadowy tactics put Shanahan on his guard - and rightly so: Wenders has become involved with a private security force that operates lawlessly across borders, without boundaries or limitations. And worse: their backing comes from within the top levels of the American government. Worse still: Wenders has blown the whistle and now wants out - using Shanahan's own identity to escape.Despite trying to walk away, Deets finds himself inextricably caught up in a world he doesn't understand and can't control, at the same time as trying to find the little girl who may or may not be the daughter of sometime colleague Howie Cross by an exotic dancer, who has witnessed a lot more than any four-year-old should have.