What happens when the itch to disappear and start over as someone else becomes impossible to resist? Hired by the missing man's panic-stricken family, seasoned Private Investigator Tony Brady discovers that taking the case is personal for him. His 8-year-old son disappeared long ago from the streets of San Francisco in a case the police could never solve, and his lifelong obsession is to spare others the crushing uncertainty that shattered the lives of his own family. But the missing man doesn't want to be found. His job at a local TV station is in limbo, and troubling secrets about the sperm donor who fathered his daughter have eaten away at him for years. Reinventing his past, Reporter Phillip Lynch becomes a professional Texas Hold'em poker player, suddenly realizing that bluffing at cards, like crafting a brand-new life, depends on telling a lie that others will believe is true. In unexpected plot twists woven through this suspenseful mystery, Playing God is the story of what happens when an ordinary man reaches his breaking point and walks away, revealing that the story of the disappeared belongs to those left behind.