To the hard-boiled story of violence and death, J.C. Simmons has brought substance and depth of characterization. It is often said that he follows in the tradition of Kenneth Millar and John D. MacDonald, but Simmons has actually broken new ground. His novels have a social range and moral dimension that, in combination with a striking prose style and first person narrative drive, provide the reader with a rewarding experience. In this new and moving novel, Jay Leicester, Simmons' celebrated Mississippi Aviation Consultant/Private Investigator, is hired by a young woman to find her sister. What appears to be an ordinary matter of a missing person is suddenly magnified, as Leicester plunges into the world of high finance, drug dealers, and murder. He ranges from Mississippi to Miami to islands in the Bahamas, tracking men and women who are pursuing the fast buck in the drug trade, and comes close to an icy blue descent into death.