Vic Bowering is still in hot pursuit of stardom on the New York stage (or screen; she's not picky). but even a future superstar needs to eat once in a while. So she takes a breather, temporarily, and begins working at McAleer's Pub as a bartender--replacing the nonbreathing, permanently dead bartender.

How he got that way doesn't concern Vic at first; she's too busy mixing drinks between casting calls. But soon she encounters increasingly strange goings-on at the bar, in her apartment, even in her love life--although nothing about her love life, she's the first to admit, has ever been exactly normal. When the regulars at McAleer's seem to know more than they're saying, when her own cat, Slasher, appears to be leading a double life, and when her policeman boyfriend Dan Duchinski acts, for once, oddly unconcerned about Vic's growing suspicion that someone is out to get her, she's forced to dive redhead first into Manhattan's shadowy economic underground to find a killer before he finds her.

As witty and irrepressible as ever, Vic is back in top form, battling the forces of bad hair, rude cabdrivers, and low tippers. This fourth entry in the series confirms Vic Bowering as one of mystery's most lovable and unforgettable heroines.