The King of Mirth — Joseph Flynn

McGill has left the building -- the White House, that is -- but he hasn't gone away. The Paris office of McGill Investigations International refers a case to the boss in Washington, DC. A man who's dying in Munich, Marlon Janeway, wants to get in touch with his sister, Alice. The problem is, he can't find her. Alice works backstage for Teagan Tobias, a performance artist with a barbed-wire opinion of the human race. Somewhere between Tobias' last show in Atlanta and his opening night in Washington, DC, Alice vanished. McGill accepts the task of finding her, preferably before Marlon expires.

Another search is on for McGill's partners in the firm's Austin, Texas office, Maj Olson and Gene Beck. Only they're not looking for a missing person. Their job is to find a hat: the one John Wayne wore in the last movie he made. That makes it the most famous cowboy hat ever. In order to solve the mystery and recover the hat, Maj and Gene will have to contend with a challenge that might have made even the Duke grit his teeth.

Things have changed somewhat for McGill and friends, but they work their cases with the same blend of wit, grit and style they always have.