Originally published: San Diego, Calif.: Harcourt Brace, 1994.

"The setting is the west coast of America early in the twenty-first century. The police ('Inquisitors') are taking over control of the state and its increasingly drug-stupefied populace.
Our hero is Conrad Metcalf, a cop-turned-private-eye with a monkey on his back, a rabbit in his waiting room, and a triger-happy kangaroo called Joey on his tail. He's been shadowing Celeste, the wife of an Oakland urologist - and maybe falling in love with her just a little. But when the doctor turns up dead, Metcalf is caught in a cross-fire between the boys from the Inquisitor's Office and gangsters who operate out of the back room of the Fickle Muse Tavern." -- Back cover