In the ten years since he began his detective agency with his wife Holly, Amos Grant never once had a client quite like Marvin M. Maxwell. The twitchy, middle-aged guy has bad luck written all over him. First, a tornado partially destroys Amos's home and then it levels the local high school, killing the wife of Amos's best friend, Sheriff Buford Billings. Next, Marvin's former girlfriend and her new boyfriend are found chopped to death. All clues point to Amos's old nemesis, Lester Dowd, the Fireman, who is rumored to be back in town with an ax to grind. When Amos finds five playing cards shoved under his office door, he knows the Dead Man's Hand is a not-so subtle warning that he may be the Fireman's next victim. However, Dowd has waited a decade for his revenge and isn't about to put all his cards on the table yet. But even the psychotic Fireman is unprepared for what little Marvin has hidden up his sleeve. is an ace of a mystery in which the pace is brisk, the chapters short, and where there's more than one joker in the deck.