When would you risk life itself for a friend? Bow-tied Ryan Bach finds the answer when he unwillingly leaves his privileged Washington, D.C. environs to pay a favor in Fort Worth, Texas, the city he reviles for humiliating him over twenty-five years ago. Bach, a prominent Beltway management consultant, provides specialized support to Fort Worth Homicide Detective J.W. Hood in solving the murder of a female federal government worker, a seductive Medusa whose repugnant acts earned her universal hatred. Her demented father gets in the way seeking revenge on a massive and bloody scale. Bach and Hood pursue clues in stubborn conflict with each other, often with humorous consequences. Hood is a good ol' boy beset with dyspeptic disposition and disdain for all things federal and politically correct. Bach is a pinstriped sophisticate who provides Hood a useful buffer between himself and all he detests. As the case spirals out of control, Bach describes his trip to Fort Worth and East Texas as, "Like Homer's interminable 'Odyssey of Ulysses' including calamitous itinerary, menacing beasts, and redneck mutants on a par with the Scylla and Cyclops."