The Little Death

When the local Palm Beach police discover a headless corpse in fields of sugar cane, Louis Kincaid is brought into the investigation and pretty soon finds himself in to the cloistered world of upper Palm Beach society, exploring the deep chasm between the rich and the underclass of those who serve them. But Louis is met with stonewalling at every turn. But on meeting Samantha Dudley, the wife of a patriarchal fixture of Palm Beach's old guard, he discovers a secret club called The Orchid Society, which provides its members with male prostitutes, including a prominent U.S. senator named Carolyn Albert, who was the subject of scandal five years previous when it was alleged that she had a liaison with a young Washington aide. Then a second headless body turns up - again in the cane fields. The male victim was a bartender in West Palm Beach with no connections to Palm Beach society. The last night he was seen alive he left the bar with a blonde woman. And because both bodies had deep ligature marks, Louis considers the idea the murderer is a woman. As Louis returns to Palm Beach, he is forced to peel away the beautiful veneers of the women to find out which one has the most to hide. But as he sets his sights on his most likely suspect, the real killer has Louis, and those close to him, in their sights.