Money to Burn

the long version

"She's a burglar's daughter -- and a first-rate P.I...." And if the tools of Veronica Ventana's trade include a PhD in lockpicking, thank her parents, the infamous Ventanas, who made cat burglary a class act. It's 3:30 am when Bink Hanover bursts into Ronnie's apartment reeking of liquor and fear. Outside are four Uzi-toting thugs and a femme fatale who have chased him to her door. Before you can say "safe house" Ronnie recruits Blackie Coogan, ex-boxer and over-the-hill P.I. Then she's off to find the woman Bink calls the "Black Widow", whose string of well-connected lovers have all come into sudden riches -- and sudden death. It's a crime. And now Ronnie is bullseye in a nasty high-stakes game. From San Francisco's bedrooms to its boardrooms, she's racing to catch a killer -- before the killer catches her.