Hollywood, 1961. After a blow to the head, the beautiful Viktor Scott wakes with no memory of her attempted rape that left her permanently deaf. But her rich father has stifled the police investigation for fear of bad publicity. When Viktor begins a new life as a cat burglar, it seems only a matter of time before she crosses paths with the straight-shooting Lt. Clegg. But better to run afoul of a hard-bitten detective than his quarry: a serial killer with a twisted appetite for posing his victims' corpses as Playboy centerfolds. A mid-century noir redolent of Ross MacDonald and James Ellroy.

As fear of the "Playboy" killer rises in the city, the pressure is on for LAPD Lt. Jordan to find the twisted murderer who stages boudoir photos with his victims' corpses. But all he's run into are dead ends, and when a mayoral hopeful backs his rival Lt. Samson, Jordan's left feeling like his best days as a detective are behind him. Meanwhile, Viktor Scott's quest to find out what happened to her the night she was almost raped takes a perilous turn, forcing her to blackmail her father's wealthy friends, placing her once more in harm's way.

When Lt. Clegg's wife gives him an ultimatum—quit the force in 48 hours, or else—the police detective makes it his deadline, telling the press he'll deliver the "Playboy" killer in two days' time. But prostitute-turned-private-eye Juanita Jones is on the murderer's trail too: one that leads her from memories of a party gone wrong to an exclusive hospital to an apartment full of incriminating photo equipment. Viktor Scott, disoriented from trying to recover her lost memories, drifts back into Clegg's orbit, only for Juanita's discoveries to reveal the two cases' hidden connections in this thrilling third installment of the series.

With the Playboy Killer safely behind bars, all is well in the City of Angels... or is it? Not for one of the intended victims, the beautiful Viktor Scott, whose romantic life—dating Detective Clegg Jordan on the sly—is complicating her newfound hobby as a cat burglar. After all, he's married, and she's feeling more than a little guilty: her friend Juanita has long been Jordan's lover. But when Jordan's wife turns up dead, and the main suspect is his rival, the ambitious detective Ariel Samson, the stage is set for discord within the police ranks: a scandal that will tear the department apart, and the city with it.