Taken hostage by a failed bank robber while attending an open house, eight anxiety-prone strangers--including a redemption-seeking bank director, two couples who would fix their marriages, and a plucky octogenarian--discover their unexpected common traits.

"In 1895 San Francisco young debutantes don't commit suicide at festive parties, particularly not under the eye of Sabina Carpenter. But Virginia St. Ives evidently did, leaping from a foggy parapet in a shimmer of ghostly light. The seemingly impossible disappearance of her body creates an even more serious problem for the firm of Carpenter and Quincannon, Professional Detective Services.Sabina hadn't wanted to take the assignment, but her partner...

The time is 1925. The place, St. Louis, Missouri. Charley Floyd, a good-looking, sweet-smiling, country boy from Oklahoma is about to rob his first armored car. This intriguing novel traces the wild career of a legendary American folk hero, a young man so charming that its hard not to like him even as hes robbing you at gunpoint. Pretty Boy Floyd is a richly comic masterpiece and an American tragedy about the price of fame and the corruption of innocence....