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In this fast-paced murder mystery, Detective Joe Zuma returns from his vacation with his wife, Claudia, a landscape painter, and is met with the murder of two women, one of whom was a teacher at a private high school. Claudia lands a part-time job in the same school teaching art while continuing to paint landscapes of Santa Monica, a city adjacent to Los Angeles and the Pacific Ocean.

A parent where Claudia teaches is eager to have her work with her child who is depressed because of the loss of her teacher (the victim) and her father. Zuma recognizes the parent as the suspect from an earlier crime whom Zuma believed had murdered her husband.

Claudia's painting interests are captured by the hobos who live on the bluffs in Santa Monica, an area adjacent to the Pacific Ocean. Her painting of a hobo is stolen, and its investigation leads to the uncovering of drug-selling connections between the hobo, his very rich and successful brother, the victim and her German-speaking parents, a principal and students, a homeless woman, as well as the murders of three of these characters. Interspersed between the solving of these murders is the romantic bantering of Claudia and the Bob Dylan-loving Zuma and their genuine love. The resolution to the previously unsolved murder involves the transformation of Zuma from a single-minded pursuit of justice to a delicate balancing of justice and mercy.