NOBODY CARES MUCH ABOUT A DEAD HOOKER... Nobody but Chicago journalist Cat Marsala, who had befriended the frail young woman who now lies dead in a gutter near Cat's apartment. Four days earlier, Cat had picked Sandra Love, as she liked to be called, out of a crowd of detainees at Women's Court. Cat had something Sandra wanted: a hot meal, in exchange for some information about life on Chicago's streets. That's all Cat intended - a fair trade of food for facts that Cat could use in a television documentary. When Sandra later appears at Cat's door and asks to spend the night, Cat's not at all sure she wants a hooker for a guest. And when Sandra shows signs of settling in for an indefinite stay, the small apartment suddenly seems very crowded. Sandra's murder tragically solves Cat's roommate problem, sending her on a quest for a killer and for a deeper understanding of the netherworld of Chicago prostitution, with its caste system in which the streetwalkers, the women in brothels, the escorts, and the by-recommendation-only independents live out their lives - and sometimes die.