In the style of Dashiell Hammett, ex-IRS agent turned gumshoe-in-training, Mortimer Angel, is approached by a beautiful hooker, Holiday, in a casino bar in Reno. Mort first met Holiday two months ago, but now learns that she's not really a hooker. She's a college engineering student, searching for her younger sister, Allie, who disappeared three months ago. Having seen Mort in the news, Holiday knows he's a PI who finds missing persons. While in the bar with Mort, Holiday gets an unexpected phone call from Allie, who says she's in Gerlach, a small town in Nevada. The call is cut off. Holiday hires Mort on the spot, dragging him off to Gerlach. When Mort finds a connection between Allie and US Senator Harry "Liar" Reinhart, a presidential candidate who vanished without a trace three days ago, things quickly turn deadly ... very deadly.
