Murder at Giuseppe's

A messy crime scene in the kitchen of a popular Italian restaurant with evidence of a ritual murder, several missing puzzle pieces connected to the crime-- including the only witness and the corpse: this is the case that has just ruined Friday night for Detective Stevenson Simms. The Chief of Police has already bungled the crime scene investigation by the time Simms arrives, and he is further hampered when the Chief assigns him a partner whom most consider incompetent. Among the missing are the restaurant owner, his wife, his mistress, and the Tibetan Monk who has been singled out as the lone witness by dozens of bystanders. Simms must wade through a cast of characters that takes him from the clannish village of Manatee Wells, to Key West, the Bahamas, and back again. It takes a street-wise Haitian orphan, a Cuban waitress and would-be nightclub singer, a Voodoo priestess, a Deputy Sheriff, and an ex-cop turned fisherman to help the two detectives solve the case.