Improbably, The Man's niece has been kidnapped, as has the daughter of another shamus in town. Investigation, directed by The Man's competent PI friend and love interest, uncovers these are only the latest in a long string of disappearances, suspicious deaths, and some very nasty business. As ever, Donaldson can sure write, but a few improbable and/or uncharacteristically unsubtle details make the detection/mystery part of the story a little unsatisfactory. Nevertheless, after I got into the story, I tore through the rest of the book pretty quickly.
I picked up the 2002 revised version, published under his own name.