Manhattan, 1948. Wonder Guy, soaring superhero, represents all that is good about postwar America. But underpaid cartoonists Harry Spiegel and Moe Shulman feel bad about publisher Donny Harrison making a killing from their creation. Then, celebrating his birthday dressed in Wonder Guy's signature caped costume, Donny suddenly collapses onto a cake knife - and discovers the super suit does not grant him the hero's invulnerability.

Glamorous Maggie Starr is America's most famous ex-striptease artist. In a way the diva is still "stripping" — running her late husband's newspaper syndicate, distributing the Wonder Guy comic strip. Stepson Jack Starr, her V.P. and chief troubleshooter, doesn't need X-ray vision to see Donny's "accident" is murder. Together, they must find a killer among cartoonists, wives, mistresses, and minions of a different sort of "syndicate" — suspects with motives that are anything but superheroic.

A new kind of mystery novel — featuring comic art by Terry Beatty, co-creator of the Ms. Tree series and frequent artist for the Batman comic books.