"A Sharon McCone mystery"--Cover.

"First Mysterious Press Paperback Printing, July, 1992"--Title page verso.

Since the Gold Rush, California prospectors have siphoned off the waters of isolated Tufa Lake, exposing the fragile, otherworldly mineral formation of the lake basin. Now a local environmental group seeks to block the latest incursion by developers - a massive mining operation funded by TransPacific, a U.S.-Hong Kong interest that seems to be behind a series of break-ins, disappearances, and shady land deals. Into this stark lunar landscape walks San Francisco P.I. Sharon McCone, searching for a missing local eccentric. When the bullet ridden corpse of an investor surfaces in the lake's silvery water, McCone finds herself on a twisted trail that leads to San Francisco and then back to the eerie desert mesas where a murderer prepares to kill again.