Blacklight guitarist JP Kinkaid is recently widowed, home in San Francisco, and engaged to his long-time lover, Bree Godwin. JP is sitting in as the second guitarist on a new CD by his longtime local friends, the Bombardiers.
The Bombardiers are breaking in a new frontman, singer-guitarist Vinny Fabiano. Self-absorbed and abrasive, Vinny is new to the Bay Area music scene; all anyone seems to really know about him is that he has some very expensive instruments, and no obvious source of income to pay for them.
A few weeks into the sessions, Vinny is found dead in the Bombardiers' San Francisco rehearsal space, smashed over the head with a custom guitar. The murder leaves the Bombardiers - already in hot water with their record label - without a singer or a regular guitar player. And when Vinny's cousin and guitar tech is found murdered, they realise that Vinny's most valuable guitar - a $75,000 custom Zemaitis pearl-top - has disappeared.