The toughest private eye in mystery fiction is back - in the middle of the Swinging Sixties. In midtown Manhattan, Hammer - recuperating from a near fatal mix-up with the Mob - walks into an assault by drug dealers on a young motorbike messenger, transporting medicine for a hospital. He saves the kid but the muggers are not so lucky. The Mob and a new young breed of drug trafficker assume he will target them, and they target him right back, with a street-corner knife attack. Hammer and his beautiful, deadly partner Velda take on the drug racket in New York. In a world of flashy discos, swanky bachelor pads and the occasional dark alley, Hammer deals with doctors and drug addicts, hippie chicks and hit men, and meets changing times with his trademark brand of violent vengeance.