The Big Silence — Bernard Schopen

IN NEVADA, ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE.
IN NEVADA, NOTHING IS AS IT SEEMS.

A man may vanish in the vast deserts, dusty towns, or glittering cities of Nevada as easily as mirages form on the sun-baked playa or the neon-washed streets. Private detective Jack Ross is a native of this transient state, a man whose doubts about his profession lead him through the dim bars and gaudy casinos of Reno. In one of these, at three in the morning, he encounters a young hooker dressed in black. She wants him to find her grandfather, who vanished into the desert after killing a man forty years ago.

The search for Lawrence Parker leads Ross into the big silence of the desert...through the alleyways of Reno... to the doorstep of one of Nevada's most Influential families. The flicker of changing identities, the shadow of blackmail, and the threat of sudden violence tail the private eye as he traces a tangle of family ties to the big silence at its center.