A fashion icon murdered in Beverly Hills has skeletons in his closet and a long list of enemies.

After the crass, but outrageously successful, fashion designer Max Reed, who exploits violence in his ads by shooting them at actual murder scenes, is blown up in his penthouse office, police watch a CCTV video of the person who delivered the bomb to Reed’s office and peg the LA private investigator Scott Brody as the killer. The truth is Brody didn’t know he was delivering a bomb. The local LA mobster Sal Andrasi duped Brody into thinking he was delivering a bowling ball to Reed. In order to clear his name, with the help of his sometime partner, the impetuous Tess Hardwick, Brody must find the real killer, the mastermind who hired Andrasi to hire Brody as the delivery boy. Which turns out to be more difficult than it seems.

Hated for his less-than-charming personality and his willingness to push the envelope when it came to advertising his fashion creations, fashion icon Reed had no lack of enemies in the cutthroat world of haute couture, including many of his own employees. With so many suspects to choose from, Brody finds himself lost in a tangle of bickering, resentful enemies, any one of which could have killed Reed, including several who want Brody dead.