She’s a burglar’s child and a first-rate private investigator. And if the various tools of Veronica Ventana’s trade add a PhD in lockpicking, thank her parents, the infamous Vintners, who produced cat burglary a class act.

It’s 3:30 a.m. when Bink Hanover bursts into Ronnie’s apartment reeking of liquor and fear. Outdoors are four Uzi-toting thugs and a femme fatale who have chased him to her door. Before you can say “safe home,” Ronnie recruits Blackie Coogan, ex-boxer and over-the-hill PI. After that she’s off to find the girl whom Bink calls the “Black Widow,” whose prior well-connected lovers possess all enter into sudden riches-and unexpected death. Now Ronnie is definitely bull’s-eye in an awful high-stakes video game. From San Francisco’s rooms to its boardrooms, she’s race to catch a killer before the killer catches her.