Midnight Louie, alley-cat extraordinaire and Las Vegas's
hairiest, hard-boiled PI, finds himself literally walking
a tightrope when a fabulous museum opening at one of Sin
City's swankiest casinos is marred by a little thing like
death.
Louie's loyal roommate, feisty PR freelancer Temple Barr,
has snagged the commission of her career: repping the
opening exhibition of the Russian Czars' priceless
treasures at the New Millennium Hotel, the apex of which
is the Czar Alexander Scepter, a priceless jewel-encrusted
artifact.
Trouble is, the hotel has booked an aerial magic act right
above the exhibition.
Temple works at a breakneck pace to coordinate this
logistical nightmare. Tragedy ensues when a performer dies
right above where the collection will be displayed and the
police threaten to shut everything down. But the word "no"
isn't one heard often in Las Vegas when money is involved
and the show (or shows) must go on. Just as things seem to
be working perfectly, another performer dies…and the
scepter vanishes. The culprits could be international art
thieves, Russian mafiosa, or Chechen rebels out to
embarrass the current Russian government.
Or it could be someone else, perhaps someone Temple knows
all too well . . . .
Temple and Louie both have enemies in the magic act--evil
magician Shangri-La and her curare-nailed performing
Siamese cat, Hyacinth--and on the ground--ever-suspicious
homicide lieutenant Carmen Molina, who's itching to pin
the heist and murders on Temple's significant other, ex-
magician and sometimes ex-spy Max Kinsella, now oddly
AWOL. Worse, as Temple and Louie's separate investigations
bring them both close to the truth,it's clear that someone
has decided to hang them out to die too.
Can fancy footwork and detection save our intrepid duo?
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