House-sitting in Boston one winter, Will Randall falls in with one of his more disreputable acquaintances, Jack J. Makepeace, who introduces Randall to his current employers, Chestnut Investigations. Soon Will finds himself appointed apprentice Private Investigator at the firm. He tails mongrels and errant husbands, attends a seminar on blood spatter, and is recruited in a strip club by an anti-government dancer. The emotional stakes are suddenly raised when Randall finds himself investigating the disappearance of a 16-year-old girl from her affluent home as well as fighting to save a vulnerable boy from the housing projects from a miscarriage of justice. Often hilarious and sometimes scary, this is an eye-opening perspective on the bizarre world of private investigation.

House-sitting in Boston one winter, Will Randall falls in with one of his more disreputable acquaintances, Jack J. Makepeace, who introduces Randall to his current employers, Chestnut Investigations. Soon Will finds himself appointed apprentice Private Investigator at the firm. He tails mongrels and errant husbands, attends a seminar on blood spatter, and is recruited in a strip club by an anti-government dancer. The emotional stakes are suddenly raised when Randall finds himself investigating the disappearance of a 16-year-old girl from her affluent home as well as fighting to save a vulnerable boy from the housing projects from a miscarriage of justice. Often hilarious and sometimes scary, this is an eye-opening perspective on the bizarre world of private investigation.