Sticks and Stones

What does a woman do when she discovers her husband is an incurable cheater? If she's Cat DeLuca, she launches the Pants On Fire Detective Agency to do what two years of unholy matrimony taught her: she catches cheaters.

After client Cleo Jones shoots her cheating husband's bum full of buckshot, he disappears, taking her money, her dog, and her sister with him. Cat promises to return the dog and money if her client stops shooting at Walter. She finds the dog and a mysterious bag full of cash, and then she finds Walter, his very dead body still warm. The cops quickly arrest Cleo for the murder of her husband.

Cat is determined to prove her client's innocence and it's not an easy sell. Cat's investigation leads to four players with secrets: a childhood friend, a gambler, a construction tycoon, and a legendary Chicago designer. But when forensic evidence suggests the detective knows more about the murder than she's telling, Cat faces the certain loss of her agency...and maybe much more.