Ross Thomas

At the height of the Cold War, two Americans are running a bar in the West German capital, called Mac's Place. One of the pair, Michael Padillo, isn't around a lot; he keeps disappearing on "business...

A long-distance call from a Texas city on his birthday gives Benjamin Dill the news that his sister—it's her birthday, too, they were born exactly ten years apart—has died in a car bomb explosion....