Mike Stratton, a disbarred attorney, recently released from a federal prison, wakes up in jail in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, California, his boyhood hometown, suffering from amnesia and charged with the rape and murder of Diane Lawson. Her half-naked body was found in his Winnebago, parked at a local campground. Stratton is found next to her; unconscious, and with a head and hand injury—his blood alcohol level off the scale. Stratton´s last memory is arriving unannounced at his Encino home, where he discovered his wife, Shiela, playing house with Gordon Heller—his best friend, former law partner, and a co-participant in the insider-trading scheme that sent Stratton to prison.
When C. J. Hagerty, the feisty and eccentric female attorney appointed to defend Stratton, wins a bail hearing, Stratton sets out to discover if he, or someone else, killed Diane Lawson. Her twin sister, Laura, stood to inherit a sizable estate. Her ex-husband, whom she dumped, was still in love with her. And then there is her boss, Martin Kolb, President and CEO of Quella Industries, a high-flying local defense contractor, who Diane threatened with a "whistleblower" lawsuit.
Set against the background of colorful San Diego, and filled with surprises, this intelligent, tightly-crafted murder mystery and courtroom drama, will leave readers hanging on until the final plot-twisting denouement.