Things get complicated for Detectives’ Grist and Dime when they run into a case of murder that reeks of California corruption. When wannabe actress, come party girl, Lizzie Short, turns up dead on a beach behind a prominent studio executive’s home, a creep that works for ex-mobster Arnie Bernardo, anything is possible. Finding a murderer in a town thick with sex, betrayal, and revenge is no easy task for Grist and Dime.

Psychiatrist and amateur artist, Higgins Idaho is haunted by his family’s tragic past. An infamous artist grandfather, a hotshot lecherous movie director, and a murdered party girl combine to push a psychologically damaged man over the edge. The senior Idaho was an infamous Hollywood painter who designed movie posters for the industry but his life spiraled downward after he was charged with a murder he didn’t commit. Despite being found innocent his reputation was ruined along with his career. The stain of bad publicity and circumstance haunts the younger Idaho, who idolized his Grandfather, until he is pushed over the edge by his obsession with the murdered party girl. Art, psychology, circumstance combine to repeat history with disastrous results. A damaged soul corrupted by an unfair history, a mistaken understanding of events, and a passion for revenge leads to Idaho’s arrest, but not before the final revelation of information that turns tragedy into pathetic pathos. Follow Detectives Grist and Dime as they unravel a mystery of psychological damage in the sordid environment of privilege and power.