Robert McDuffie is a businessman with an addiction to gambling. Robert owes big time to loan shark Frank Litvak. Litvak sends his two henchmen—Rico and Jerry—to pick Robert up and bring him over to see him. Litvak gives Robert two weeks to pay up. As Rico and Jerry drive him back to his car, Robert finds a pouch containing an elegant pigeon-blood red necklace belonging to Litvak. A couple of days pass before Rico realizes that Robert took the necklace. Rico then flies to Honolulu, where Robert is on a second honeymoon with his wife—at least this is what Rico is told. When Litvak receives an anonymous phone call from a woman about the necklace and assumes that the woman is Robert’s wife Evelyn, Litvak orders Rico to get rid of them. What unfolds is not quite what Rico has in mind.

Duncan crafts a twisted thriller in his gangster-laced debut. The first in a trilogy, Duncan’s three-part plot is replete with a handful of colorful characters, many of which are dissimilar to a genre of this type. Additionally, Duncan’s style of storytelling is a product of strong cast development, plot fillers, engaging dialogue, and shifting character scenes. His narrative moves slowly but consistently as it builds to unexpected story closures until he introduces more characters in other situations. Although it appears that Duncan’s plot is jumping around, the scenes and characters eventually weave together into one full-blown thriller. While some thriller enthusiasts may find the slow story movement and lack of continual tension tedious, Duncan does provide enough twists and turns as well as cliff-hanging chapters to keep his audience not only hooked until the end but also anticipating the next work in his series.

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