While the rest of San Diego deals with the horrors and shortages of World War II, private investigator Tom Hickey is making his fortune moonlighting as half owner of Rudy"s Hacienda, a downtown nightclub. That is, until the club"s young jazz singer Cynthia Moon disappears and business drops precipitously. When Tom goes looking for Cynthia, he discovers her bizarre, tragic, and dangerous family as well as a spiritualist cult led by her mother Venus. Can Hickey navigate the half-mad atmosphere of Venus" cult and find Cynthia? Can he save the girl from herself and the demons that haunt her, and still hold onto his business, his wife, and his daughter? Ken Kuhlken"s stories have appeared in Esquire and dozens of other magazines, been honorably mentioned in Best American Short Stories, and earned a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. His first Tom Hickey novel, The Loud Adios, won the St. Martin"s Press/PI Writers of America Best First PI Novel award. The Venus Deal is second in...