Simon Fraser has returned from the dead. This is no surprise to his fortune telling friend Millicent Zacharias who thought his sudden heart attack and subsequent cremation a bit too fast and "hokey" to be believed. Besides, her Tarot deck never showed the old man''s name along with the Death card. Mrs. Z''s cards never lie.

Someone has been about the business of elimination the original members of the Detective Club. Simon''s assistant Tom McElrath and his wife had a near miss by dropping a flight east and stopping over at Denver. The plane they were supposed to be on was blown up in the air. Ginnie Smith, her husband, and tiny son have been killed and their house burnt to the ground.

Simon, returned from a government journey to Iraq will not discuss why he disappeared and what he did. He is now accompanied by a cold-eyed young man named Archer Shane whose task it is to keep him alive and who takes his work seriously.

The remaining members of the Detective Club: Millicent Zacharias, Prentice Dodd and Lieutenant Robert Campbell are not inclined to take the precautions Simon or Archer think they should.