When we last dropped in on Jonathan Ames -- New York writer, romantic, unlicensed private detective -- he was taking a pounding in the boxing ring while still licking his (more painful) breakup wounds. Now that his second novel has been completed (and rejected), Jonathan is augmenting his income by moonlighting as a creative-writing teacher, while taking on some new, desperate clients, ranging from a kinky policeman to the publishing rival of his sexagenarian pal, George Christopher. How he solves anything is a mystery.