Dr. Altman and the Concubines

Move over Sue Grafton, Michael Connolly, and Adrien McGinty, Shortell-McSweeney is in town.

In the early Eighties, everyone from the Guerilla Girls to Lou Reed can be spotted walking the cobblestone streets of Soho. Sigourney Madigan has worked many "rainbow colored" jobs since leaving her Pennsylvania farm. Her last job with the Due Diligence Detective Agency ended when the owner's wife caught him en flagrante at the Chelsea Hotel.

Sig inherits audio and video equipment from Due Diligence and so decides to open her own detective agency. Her first client is Jennifer Palmer, an uptight administrator at The Center for Rational Therapy-a far cry from the flamboyance of Soho. Someone claims to have a pornographic video of Jennifer and is now blackmailing her; Jennifer enlists Sig's help to stop the blackmail.

However, when the police begin investigating a murder, Sig realizes her professional ethics are on trial. The intrigue only increases when Jennifer disappears. From Soho to the Devil's Hole of Martinique, crime knows no borders, but Sig is determined to find Jennifer. She will rescue her client's-and her own-reputation in this hard-boiled noir thriller featuring a complex heroine who will stop at nothing to break the case.