<p>A mild-mannered college professor becomes an unlikely candidate to hunt down the killer of the town&rsquo;s richest man and his movie star paramour. But as things progress it quickly becomes apparent that every attractive woman on the West Coast has become a maniac&#39;s idea of the most dangerous game.&nbsp;<br /><br />Called in because of a chance encounter years before Max Blake a former newspaper reporter-turned-professor and part-time private detective is forced to form unusual and sometimes dodgy alliances as he investigates the vicious killings with the city&rsquo;s police chief. The alliance is even more complicated because of a past history between Max and the chief and the fact that the leading candidates for the murders are members of the city&#39;s police force.&nbsp;<br /><br />The trail winds through the incredible mansion called Raptor&rsquo;s Ridge through the streets and alleyways of Oregon&#39;s state capitol and it eventually spills into the state&rsquo;s beautiful but deadly High Desert near the town of John Day.&nbsp;<br /><br />When the killer is eventually cornered and violence explodes in unexpected ways Max must use all of his wits and daring plus a little bit of luck to remain alive during a deadly night of terror ... and eventual reckoning.&nbsp;<br /><br />Fans of the author&#39;s Max Blake Westerns series will rejoice in discovering this new and thoroughly modern Max the great-great grandson and namesake of the legendary federal marshal that forms the basis of five novels from the same author.</p>