Until her paper, the Baltimore Star, crashed and burned, Tess Monaghan was a damn good reporter who knew her hometown intimately -- from historic Fort McHenry to the crumbling projects of Cherry Hill. Now gainfully unemployed at twenty-nine, she''s willing to take any freelance job to pay the rent -- including a bit of unorthodox snooping for her rowing buddy, Darryl "Rock" Paxton.

In a city where someone is murdered almost everyday, attorney Michael Abramowitz''s death should be just another statistic. But the slain lawyer''s notoriety -- and his noontime trysts with Rock''s fiancee -- make the case front page news...and points to Rock as the likely murderer. But trying to prove her friend''s innocence couls prove costly to Tess -- and add her name to that infamous ever-growing list.