It's been six weeks since Todd Mills's last big story for WLAK-TV in Minneapolis, and since the pressure is on him to justify his A-list salary, he's willing to follow a fishy tip to meet an anonymous blackmail victim in the middle of Stone Arch Bridge. When he gets there, though, he finds he's been set up to witness the killing of uncloseted gay policeman Mark Forrest. All the evidence points to Kris (nÆ’ Christopher) Kenney, a beautiful transgender waitress whose earlier indictment for killing a gay cop in Los Angeles was dismissed on a technicality. But Todd can't help thinking the package is too neat. Why did the anonymous caller make sure the Twin Cities' most visible gay reporter was on the scene of the murder? If Kris isn't the killer, what's the connection between the two crimes? And is the next target Todd's HIV-positive lover, Sgt. Steve Rawlins, or their old friend Janice Gray, Kris's lesbian defense attorney? Only a thunderous climax during a dark and stormy night will tell. As in Todd's hardcover debut, Hostage (1997), the clever mystery is completely overshadowed by Zimmerman's high-intensity look at the dark side of sexual politics--in this case, the plight of Kris Kenney, stigmatized and despised by both straights and gays as beyond the pale.