"[K. W.] Jeter is an exhilarating writer who always seems to have another rabbit to pull out of his hat. . . . [He] accomplishes his goal of updating the genre, and he does so with commendable energy and imagination."-The New York Times Book Review

"A master of dark visions, Jeter delivers his most . . . ambitious book to date. . . . An SF equivalent, perhaps, of The Name of the Rose."-Publishers Weekly

L.A.: the sparkling metropolis at the new center of what's left of the civilized world. Here wealthy men and women seek forbidden thrills through a system that enables them to indulge safely and anonymously in their wildest fantasies through the use of computerized simulations known as prowlers. Then a young executive at one of the the world's most powerful corporations is brutally slain and an ex-information cop named McNihil is called in to find the dead man's still "living" prowler. McNihil knows he's walking into a trap. But he wants a chance to redeem himself for a botched job that forced him into retirement years ago. Teamed with a ruthless female operative called November, McNihil is about to enter a world in which no one can be trusted and things are far worse than they seem . . . a world in which a vast conspiracy of evil is about to blur the razor-thin line between the sane safety of daylight and the dark danger of noir.

"Impressive."-Locus