A wealthy Pasadena widow with a mean streak, a missing daughter-in-law with a past, and a gold coin worth a small fortune--the elements don't quite add up until Marlowe discovers evidence of murder, rape, blackmail, and the worst kind of human exploitation.@lt;br@gt;@lt;br@gt;"Raymond Chandler is a star of the first magnitude."-- Erle Stanley Gardner@lt;br@gt;@lt;br@gt;"Raymond Chandler has given us a detective who is hard-boiled enough to be convincing . . . and that is no mean achievement." -- The New York Times