Rookie private detective, Jack Hammer (no relation to Mike) is hired by an attractive, Eastern European refugee to track down her missing uncle. Slow to engage, Jack assumes the uncle is simply off on a bender at the local pool hall ... until he discovers that somebody has broken into her house, beaten her to a pulp, and left her body floating fully clothed in her own bathtub. An unsigned note demands the delivery of a mysterious device that bears the name of the missing uncle, and although Jack has no clue what the device could be, the life of a second unnamed female now hangs in the balance. What is this mysterious device? And who is the lady they're threatening? And how is it all connected to his dead client? Pursuing his only clue, Jack desperately searches for the uncle in the basement pool halls and cafes of post-World War II Salt Lake City, but as time runs down, he makes a bombshell discovery-a revelation that only pulls him deeper into a shadowy mix of Russian spies, FBI obstruction, and quite possibly the best idea that Nikola Tesla ever had.
