Her love affair with her boyfriend, Nick, is in jeopardy, and her career is in free fall. So when full-figured Manhattan PI Desiree Shapiro is invited to speak at a mystery writers' convention in Connecticut, she figures a few days away will do her good, and she accepts (even though the very idea of speaking in public shakes her to the roots of her glorious hennaed hair). To Desiree's surprise, her talk is a hit. But she receives an even bigger surprise the following morning when eccentric author Belle Simone approaches her with a truly bizarre proposition: If Desiree can solve the mystery in Belle's unpublished novel, she'll be paid $24,940! A tantalizing whodunit and an astonishing payout--how can she possibly resist? Desiree soon becomes engrossed in Belle's story of adultery and murder in a wealthy New York family. But there's a much larger mystery to be resolved: Why would anyone pay her such an exorbitant sum to solve a homicide that exists only on paper?