Always looking for something new to try, Dean took a different approach with this book. For the two previous novels, One Step Ahead and So Much for Your Promises, the action took place on the East Coast. 

In this book King is traveling back to Las Vegas by train. He meets a gorgeous female who strikes up a conversation with him. When she learns that he is a private eye she gets all giddy and immediately wants to hear his most fascinating case. King thinks a bit and then proceeds to tell her about not one, but three cases. He doesn't want to scare her too much so he chooses cases that don't involve murder.

This "no murder" approach is the basis for an interesting piece of literary trivia that involves Dean and one of his influences, Raymond Chandler. Dean once read a book about Chandler where the famous author stated that he found it impossible for him to ever write a mystery that didn't involve murder. Dean took that as a challenge and decided to write not one, but three stories where all parties involved kept a pulse.

I guess you could say this was a book of short stories, but the way Dean laid it out you didn't realize it. There were no titles given for any of these tales and King always started each one like Rod Serling introducing a Twilight Zone episode. After every intro the reader would seamlessly be blended into the story. At the conclusion of each case we'd be back on the train with King recapping. Of course by the end of the whole book King ended up sharing a sleeping berth with the young lady.