Nate and Peter had been pals since the fifth grade. But Peter's fate had been decided long before that. Once promising artist, Peter Caruso, has not been seen or heard from in five years. When he is found shot to death in a dingy New York City Apartment, Nate Parks, his boyhood friend, is horrified. Who on earth would want to kill Peter? And where had Peter been for those five long years? As Nate deals with his own struggles in the New York City art scene, his search for answers only leads to more questions--about Peter and about the paintings he left behind. Risking more than he realizes, Nate works his way into the dark and dangerous world of a Peter Caruso he never knew. It's within that world that he finally uncovers long-buried secrets, eventually learning the truth behind Peter's death and the truth behind a group of forty masterpieces that come to be known as The Caruso Collection.