When a U.S. Army Claims officer is murdered in grizzly fashion the roustabout duo of George Sueño and Ernie Bascom have to go against orders to track a calculating killer and author Martin Limón proves once again why he is hailed by his peers as one of the greatest military writers of all time.

Early one rainy morning, the head of the 8th United States Army Claims Office in Seoul, South Korea, is brutally murdered by a Korean man in a trench coat carrying a small iron sickle hidden in his sleeve. The attack was a complete surprise, carefully planned and clinically executed. How did this unidentified Korean civilian get into the tightly controlled US Army base? And why attack the Claims officer --- is there an unsettled grudge, a claim of damages that was rejected by the US Army?

Against orders, CID agents Sergeant George Sueño and Ernie Bascom start investigating. Somehow, each person they speak to has not yet been interviewed. The 8th Army isn’t great at solving cases, but they aren’t that bad either. As George and Ernie continue their search, they begin to suspect that not everyone wants the case solved.