His career derailed by the vengeful billionaire Curtlee family for his part in convicting one of their number for murder, former homicide detective Abe Glitsky learns that the killer has won a retrial at the same time a star witness has been murdered.

When an elderly shop owner can no longer pay for the services of the Patrol Specials private police force, he tries to get help from his friend in the police department of San Francisco only to wind up murdered. Dismas Hardy is putting together a lawsuit against the Patrol Specials when his friend is accused of the murder. The policeman and the lawyer must try to protect each other and their nearest and dearest.

Gavin Cain, an SFPD homicide inspector, is in the middle of an exhumation when his phone rings. San Francisco's mayor is being blackmailed and has ordered Cain back to the city...a helicopter is on its way. The casket, and Cain's cold-case investigation, must wait. At City Hall, the mayor shows Cain four photographs he's received: the first, an unforgettable blonde; the second, pills and handcuffs on a nightstand; the third, the woman drinking from...