Mad Dog Barked

When a potential client walks into your office with a unique first edition copy of Edgar Allan Poe's The Murders in the Rue Morgue with a letter inside full of disorienting notes, you start asking questions. When this client mentions that his personal secretary has disappeared on his way to find you and then writes an obscenely large check, you have to wonder what the hell is going on. When you ask your new client what exactly he wants you to do and he replies, "Let your conscience be your guide," you know there's going to be trouble....

Scott Porter owns a Florida detective agency that specializes in criminal court cases. When Mr. Edwin Morton Holmes drops the mysterious letter in his lap, Porter isn't sure what he should do with it. Then a thin, hatchet-faced man begins following him, and a guard at Mr. Holmes' estate is found with his head caved in. Almost before Porter can even decide where to start, he's facing not only two dead bodies but the disappearance of his client.

The answer must lie with the letter but Porter is damned if he can figure out what it is. He has other problems, too, with a field agent he isn't sure he can trust, and his attraction to his married assistant, Trudy, who may or may not feel the same way. Things grow even more complicated when the FBI shows up and murder soon becomes the least of his problems....