Tucson: Dennis McMillan Publications, 2005. dj. SIGNED hardcover first edition - First English language edition of a title originally published in French. "Unfortunately, Renee Knowles is killed before the postcoital bliss has had a chance to wear off, and the narrator, San Francisco picture framer Danny Kestrel, is the cops' top suspect. What starts off like a classic wrong-man thriller turns out to be that - and about 15 other things, each successively more bizarre and compelling. .. It turns out that Knowles, an antiques picker for the rich and famous, had stumbled upon the well-traveled and seriously bloody trail of the Syracuse Codex, a Roman Empire artifact already being sought by a hardy band of fortune hunters right out of The Maltese Falcon.. . an over-the-top piece of bravura storytelling that grabs you in its helter-skelter narrative frenzy and won't let go." (Bill Ott) SIGNED on the title page. 469 pp. ISBN: 0-93976752X.