It's the 1940s--wartime in San Francisco. Young, beautiful, ambitious radio actress Billie Desmond is living the high life until an unplanned pregnancy casts a dark shadow on her romance with local radio personality and darling of San Francisco Café Society, Payton Powell. When her lover refuses Billie's demand they marry, she threatens to expose a secret that could land him in Federal prison for the rest of his life. Powell is not about to let that happen. When Billie vanishes during a live radio broadcast, the SFPD mount a full investigation but fail to find any trace of the actress. The disappearance of Billie Desmond dead-ends in a cold case file; forgotten by law enforcement until Sheriff's Inspector Maxwell Sterling and his feisty wife Zoey Lassiter begin to pick up clues. Drop Dead is the first in a series of murder mysteries featuring these two sleuths.