Old Man Hess is concerned by the near-catatonic behavior of his daughter, Grady. The young woman showed up at his doorstep a few days earlier, refusing to admit anything was wrong, and has been wandering around the farm, not talking, barely eating. The "Nameless Detective" thinks the old farmer would be better off calling a psychiatrist--but he's at least willing to ask a few questions. As he begins to investigate, he discovers Grady's affliction...

A simple case of blackmail gets lethally complicated when "Nameless" exposes a nasty scam that involves junior accounts executive Jay Cohalan, his unhappy wife, and a mistress with a serious drug problem. It's the kind of case Nameless likes, because bleeders-the blackmailers, extortionists, small-time grifters, and other opportunists who prey on the weak and gullible-sit near the top of his most-worthless-human-beings list. But soon Nameless finds...

"Nameless" has seen enough death in his years; spending his time watching someone drive to several funerals a day, funerals for people he didn't know, was more than he could take. And he had a nonprofessional problem of his own; his relationship with his wife, Kerry, had hit a wall and nothing he'd done had gotten him over it and to the other side. There was one possibility, one thing he'd done (or not done) but knowing that didn't seem to help......

Nameless had told Mitchell Krochek that he'd do whatever he could to find his missing wife, Janice. She'd run away before-propelled by a gambling fever that rose ever higher-and Mitch had always taken her back. This time, when Nameless, his partner Tamara, and the agency's chief operative Jake Runyon finally found her in a sleazy San Francisco hotel, she demanded a divorce. A few days later, a beaten and bloody Janice stumbled into the agency begging...

We're told that there are seven deadly sins; not on the list is the deadliest of them all: Betrayal. For each of the detectives at the agency, a betrayal-personal, against a child, against the elderly-becomes not only the driving force behind an investigation, but the source of the kind of resolve that cannot be derailed by threats of any kind. Tamara's case began as something personal but explodes as her investigation of her former lover Lucas Zeller...

"Bill, the "Nameless Detective", and his wife Kerry were in the Sierra foothills, just outside of Six Pines, falling in love with a cabin. It was all perfect, until Kerry went missing. They'd seen Balfour at breakfast at the diner and Kerry remembered his name...PR people are like that. Which was unfortunate, because when she ran into him along the trail on that sunny afternoon and called him by name, he panicked. And that's when Bill's nightmare...

Cheryl seeks assistance from Nameless when her son, Cody Hatcher, is accused of three rapes in Mineral Springs.

Or rather, two cases that will test his agency's resources. Love is in the air...more to the point, love gone awry. One case involves a woman whose husband died accidentally in a remote cabin in the Sierras. The wife isn't buying that her husband was alone, and is determined to find out his secret and get closure...in spite of any potential heartbreak. The other case is a missing person . . . but the person missing was agoraphobic and never left...

Sharon McCone has come home to her warm, troubled family, to San Diego and a convention of private detectives in a posh seaside hotel. For Sharon it's a chance to catch up with old friends--all except for the one who fell four stories from one of the hotel spires. Now, Sharon is determined to find out why her friend died.

Four novellas that involve "Nameless" in cases of murder, missing persons, occultism, and fate.