A man tries to find his ex-wife in a remote town outside of San Francisco. He was branded a murderer fourteen years earlier because of her disappearance. He goes to Cyanide Wells to uncover details of her where-abouts but she vanishes again. He works with a local woman as they hunt through the county's untamed landscape.

"The Body Snatchers Affair: The latest in the Carpenter and Quincannon historical mystery series from Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini. Two missing bodies and two separate investigations take Carpenter and Quincannon from the heights above San Francisco Bay to the depths of Chinatown's opium dens. For John Quincannon, this is a first: searching a Chinatown opium den for his client's husband, missing in the middle of a brewing tong war set to ignite...