When his wife disappears without a trace, a desperate man turns to Chicago’s toughest PI for help in this classic hardboiled mystery. Elizabeth Tollman puts the roast in the oven, goes out to buy a loaf of bread, and never comes home. Half an hour later, her husband finds the bread outside their front door, but his wife is nowhere to be seen. Edward Tollman calls her friends, combs the streets, even pokes his head into local bars—but Elizabeth has vanished into thin air. The police can’t help him without evidence of a crime, so Tollman turns to the one man in Chicago who’s mean enough to get results: Barney Burgess, PI.   Burgess is strapping and tough, with an ugly mug that’s almost handsome in a Humphrey Bogart sort of way. In fact, everything about him seems straight out of a B movie—right down to his spit-shined shoes and his itchy trigger finger. Burgess is used to dealing with killers, but Tollman’s case will be the most dangerous of his career.

When his wife disappears without a trace, a desperate man turns to Chicago’s toughest PI for help in this classic hardboiled mystery. Elizabeth Tollman puts the roast in the oven, goes out to buy a loaf of bread, and never comes home. Half an hour later, her husband finds the bread outside their front door, but his wife is nowhere to be seen. Edward Tollman calls her friends, combs the streets, even pokes his head into local bars—but Elizabeth has vanished into thin air. The police can’t help him without evidence of a crime, so Tollman turns to the one man in Chicago who’s mean enough to get results: Barney Burgess, PI.   Burgess is strapping and tough, with an ugly mug that’s almost handsome in a Humphrey Bogart sort of way. In fact, everything about him seems straight out of a B movie—right down to his spit-shined shoes and his itchy trigger finger. Burgess is used to dealing with killers, but Tollman’s case will be the most dangerous of his career.