The rope around Mistress Raven's throat is tighter-and deadlier- than the ropes securing her to the bondage racks in Roissy, a weekend resort for sadomasochists in the Arizona desert. She is surrounded by people who have a reason to hate her: the man whose business she stole, the woman whose consent she abused, the ex-lover whose heart she broke. For Sheriff John Clarke, the small-town lawman out to find her killer, the journey into the dark side of human sexuality might just be the most thrilling and dangerous of them all.