The only identifying marks on a body left in a backwoods quarry are dental work and faded tattoos. Investigating police detective Joe Gunther enters the paranoid world of the CIA and Russian mafia, which will do anything to settle an old Cold War dispute--including getting rid of Joe by framing him for a crime he didn't commit.
When a local quarry yields up a garroted body with bad dental work and toes tattooed in Cyrillic, Joe Gunther figures it for a Russian mafia killing, rare as that might be in Vermont. But it's so very... tidy. So very... professional. Then the CIA calls, inviting Gunther down to Washington for some friendly "assistance" with his case. Suddenly he's caught up a shadowy game of cross and double-cross-manipulated by cynical cold warriors who seem not to have gotten the memo-and Gunther soon realizes that he's a pawn that both sides are willing to sacrifice.