5It's 2003, nearly 30 years after the Vietnam War... Blanche "Bang" Murninghan is sitting on the dock of the Peel 'n Eat Pier on Santa Maria Island, sipping an excellent draft and wiggling her fishing pole after an elusive sheepshead. It's hot out and the sun is shining. She doesn't see the woman eyeing her from the fishing hut--not until she appears at Blanche's side and forever disrupts Blanche's peaceful idyll in this quiet Gulf coast town. The woman is Jean McMahon and she needs Blanche's help--her amateur sleuthing skills have become local legend after she helped solve the murder of a friend and dodge some drug-dealing land developers. Jean needs a good dose of that Blanche determination and doggedness. It's not a simple favor Jean asks. Will Blanche go to Vietnam with her and look for Jean's mother?