At night, Manuel Muldoon, a magna-cum-barely high-school graduate, dreams of two leaving Marshlake, Texas, and becoming a successful mystery writer. By day, the often-belittled half-Irish, half-Mexican young man is houseboy to the town's first family of Robert and Nancy Sturmwell and their spoiled daughter Miss Victoria, and sometimes Robert's nephew Jeff and his beautiful wife Erica. With the family away on vacation, Manny agonizes over his first novel and revels in the peace - until the family returns and a contractor sees an arm sticking out of the unfinished swimming pool wall. Framed for one murder, implicated in another, Manny confides in Vicky while evading police and the murderer on a fast-paced, dangerous trip to uncover the truth. A sleepy Texas town, drug money laundering, a jealous roommate, a crooked banker in league with a crooked cop, and a na¯ve writer-to-be converge in Manuel Muldoon.
