Almost twenty years have passed since Anthony Galton disappeared, along with a suspiciously streetwise bride and several thousand dollars of his family's fortune. Now Anthony's mother wants him back and has hired Lew Archer to find him. What turns up is a headless skeleton, a boy who claims to be Galton's son, and a con game whose stakes are so high that someone is still willing to kill for them. Devious and poetic, The Galton Case displays MacDonald...

Roger Brown is a headhunter and art thief living beyond his means and when he meets Clas Greve, a corporate candidate who reveals that he owns a priceless Rubens painting, Roger breaks into his apartment, initiating a series of events which puts Roger's life in danger.