Masao Masuto is a Nisei detective on the Beverly Hills police force- a cultured stranger in an even stranger land of traffic-clogged freeways, artery-clogging fast food... and brutal murders. In The Case of the Sliding Pool, the collapse of a swimming pool exposes the skeleton of a man, buried in the pool's foundation for thirty years. Determined to learn the identities of both the victim and his killer, Masuto finds himself in a game of wits with a brilliant murderer. In The Case of The Kidnapped Angel, Hollywood sex goddess Angel Barton has been kidnapped. Although Angel returns home unharmed a short time later, her husband, Mike- who left to pay her ransom- is not so lucky. Secking the reasons for Barton's death, Masuto is soon drawn into a complex world of secret passions, bewildering illusions... and increasingly savage murders.