Celebrated criminal lawyer Marc Kadella knows the importance of personal connections in his line of work. In Dennis Carstens’ sixth Marc Kadella legal thriller, his old buddy Tony Carvelli, a private investigator, asks him to take on a drug case for his well-off friend’s delinquent kid and he agrees—even though he’s had it with drug cases. Marc enlists the help of PI Maddy Rivers, his longtime best friend and confidante, to dig up dirt on two cops suspected of planting evidence on the bust. With Carvelli’s connections (the guy knows everybody), Marc is able to infiltrate the St. Paul police force and expose gross incompetence. But when it comes to prodding Maddy about her new beau, Marc’s got bupkis.
Maddy has her reservations about her new relationship with Rob Judd. Sure, he’s a handsome and brilliant investment analyst in a wildly successful securities management firm. But he’s constantly distracted. It seems something about the firm’s not quite right—or so he finally lets on to Maddy. Its returns are consistently solid, maybe a little too solid—or so suspects Patrick McGarry, one of Rob’s co-workers. After voicing his suspicions to Rob, Patrick heads up north for a weekend hiking trip—and winds up dead. It’s only a matter of days before Rob is next. And Maddy’s found unconscious at the gruesome scene of the crime, clutching the murder weapon.
Convinced Maddy was framed, Marc decides to take on the case in spite of his close connections to the client. He finds he must delve deep into the complex money laundering schemes of Rob Judd’s employer—and its connections to a ruthless Mexican drug cartel and an expert hitman who’s fallen off the radar—to save Maddy from false imprisonment. Or worse.
