Bart  Minnock, founder  of  the  computer gaming  giant  U Play,  enters  his  private  playroom,  and  eagerly  can't  wait  to  lose  himself  in  an  imaginary  world,  to  play  the  role  of  a  sword wielding  warrior  king,  in  his  company's  latest  top secret  project,  Fantastical.The  next  morning,  he  is  found  in  the  same  locked  room,  in  a  pool  of  blood,  his  head  separated  from  his  body.  It  is  the  most  puzzling  case  Eve  Dallas  has  ever  faced,  and  it  is  not  a  game...  NYPSD  Lieutenant  Eve  Dallas  is  having  as  much  trouble  figuring  out  how  Bart  Minnock  was  murdered  as  who  did  the  murdering.  The  victim's  girlfriend  seems  sincerely  grief stricken,  and  his  quirky but brilliant  partners  at UPlay  appear  equally  shocked.  No  one  seemed  to  have  a  problem  with  the  enthusiastic,  high spirited  millionaire.  Of  course,  success  can  attract  jealousy,  and  gaming,  like  any  business,  has  its  fierce  rivalries  and  dirty  tricks as  Eve's  husband,  Roarke,  one  of  U Play's  competitors,  knows  well.  But  Minnock  was  not  naive,  and  quite  capable  of  fighting  back  in  the  real  world  as  well  as  the  virtual  one.Eve  and  her  team  are  about  to  enter  the  next  level  of  police  work,  in  a  world  where  fantasy  is  the  ultimate  seduction and  the  price  of  defeat  is  death...