Blue-blooded, scotch-ad-gorgeous Cameron Sheffield Noyes is the new enfant terrible of American letters. Writer of the wildly best selling first novel Bang, Noyes is the media's latest darling and the current ringmaster of New York's literary circus. Between photo shoots for Vanity Fair and interviews for The Paris Review, he's having a blast trying to outdrink Dylan Thomas, outbrawl Ernest Hemingway, and outsnort the entire brat pack. There's only one problem: with such a busy schedule, Cam simply can't find the time to write his long-overdue second novel. Enter Stewart "Hoagy" Hoag.

Once the toast of the publishing world himself, Hoagy is now reduced to eking out a living as a celebrity ghostwriter and reluctant amateur detective, aided by his neurotic basset hound, Lulu. Hoagy agrees to help Cam write his new book, a tell-all account of his meteoric rise that promises to expose the greed and corruption that fester beneath the shiny surface of the publishing industry.

As Hoagy digs deeper into Cam's past, however, he becomes more and more convinced that something doesn't smell right - and it isn't just Lulu's breath. Because the corpses are starting to pile up faster than the pages of Cam's manuscript. Now Hoagy finds himself in a desperate race to uncover the secret of Cam's past - and nab the killer who will do anything to keep it hidden.