Chicago private eye Luke Lassiter gets a chance at big bucks when he is commissioned to write the "final" thriller of missing (and presumed dead) bestselling author Carl Garvey. Long a fan and a would-be writer, Lassiter successfully apes Garvey's slam-bang style and the book is a smash. But the insurance company is suspicious, and Lassiter himself is hired to find the missing author. Garvey's lawyer is killed, then his "widow," and bodies start piling up. Before Lassiter can unravel the mystery, his live-in girlfriend is murdered and there's a climactic confrontation on a Fiji-bound ship.