Alice Einstein - known as "Malice" to her former schoolfriends - likes to tell herself stories. There's a good one she's workshopping about how, despite once being a critically acclaimed literary novelist, she's ended up blocked and uninspired, living in her timid, conflict-averse sister Liesl's spare room. But then Liesl sends her an SOS worthy of a thriller novel. The horror! The horror! Sam is back. Sam, Liesl's wealthy ex-husband, vanished ten years ago, leaving her a chunk of money but no explanation. Sam is handsome, charming, manipulative . . . and now he claims he's sick. But Alice, with her experience of spinning tales, knows a liar when she sees one. Haunted by a childhood tragedy that gave birth to the cruel nickname "Lethal", Liesl now specialises in saving things: dogs, children, sisters. Telling herself it's time she returned the favor, Alice engages the services of Brigid Quinn, a hardboiled local private investigator with a shady past, to help her get rid of Sam for good. But as the plot thickens, Alice begins to wonder if she knows anyone involved - most of all herself - quite as well as she thinks . . .