Plot Summary:Jessica meets mystery rhyme writer Horace Lynchfield in San Francisco, both came for a literary award. Published, womanizing but burned-out novelist Hemsley Post is reminded of his debt by and to his since 10 years separated wife Alexis, shakes off real veteran and would-be author Frank Lapinski by calling a security guard, boasts about the 'definitive Vietnam war novel' even his publisher never read to his former secretary Adrian Winslow who is now successful and sneers Post was only shortly Playboy correspondent, uses his fist on Horace for a mere cross word at the same award guests cocktail party also attended by publisher Tiffany Harrow and is found knocked dead the next morning, just before Jessica arrives trying to return accidentally switched umbrellas. A.D.A. Mel Comstock, who aims at the mayoral election, needs no more then Horace's admission of a blackout to arrest him. Jessica is determined to find the real killer, and soon starts noticing and checking up on oddities...
Jessica sets out to clear the name of a friend who is a prime suspect in a murder case.