There was nothing waiting for ex-cop Max Mingus when he walked out of Attica Prison after serving hard time for murder--his adored wife died in a car crash while he was locked up. Now Miami's one-time top detective is haunted by an empty house, bad memories . . . and an impossible job offer for obscenely good money. Three years ago, Charlie Carver, the five-year-old son of a powerful Haitian billionaire, vanished. His father is offering Max $15 million to bring the boy back--or, at the very least, to find his body and deliver his abductors.

Max knows he should turn this case down. There's no way the kid is still alive, and pursuing his ghost means plunging headfirst into Haiti, a steaming island hotbed of crime, greed, voodoo, and corruption. And the three detectives who preceded Mingus are all dead . . . or worse. But Max has nothing left to lose--even if his investigation stirs up a murky evil that can swallow a man whole . . . and leads him to the soul-destroying truth about a terrifying local myth, a child-stealing nightmare called "Mr. Clarinet."

Miami, 1981. Cocaine Central. Murder Capital, USA.

A city about to catch fire.

Detective Max Mingus and his partner, Joe Liston, are anticipating a routine murder investigation when they are called to the scene of death at Miami's Primate Park--until the victim's family is found slaughtered, and a partly digested tarot card, the King of Swords, is discovered in the victim's stomach.

A trail that's growing bloodier by the hour is leading Max and Joe to the most powerful criminal in Miami: the infamous Solomon Boukman. Few have ever set eyes on the evil, intensely feared enigma, but rumors abound of voodoo ceremonies, dark rites, and friends in very high places. Malevolence is running rampant in a city choking on hatred, rage, and official corruption--as Max races to discover the terrifying truth about Boukman before death's shadow reaches his own front door.

Penguin Picks are stories you'll want to read again and again. Beautifully and stylishly designed by a modern artist, they are not only stories you'll keep coming back to but also books whose looks will never go out of fashion . . . 'Ten million dollars if he performed a miracle and brought the boy back alive, five million dollars if he came back with just the body, and another five million if he dragged the killers in with it. Those were the terms, and, if he chose to accept them, that was the deal' Ex-cop, ex-PI and now ex-con Max Mingus doesn't want to take the case. It means going to Haiti, a lawless island of voodoo and black magic and home to a monster they call Mr Clarinet. In searching for the missing boy - alive or dead - Max could lose his life or suffer a fate far worse. But a man who has nothing will risk a lot for ten million dollars . . . 'Triumphant' Observer 'Terrifying, exhilarating, breathlessly compelling' Daily Express --------- Popular Penguins perfectly designed Winner of the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award, the International Thriller Writers Award and the Mcavity Award for Best First Novel