The Big Law: A Novel
The follow-up toThe  Price of Blood, one of Amazon.com's 10 best thrillers of 1997,The Big Lawgets off to an exciting start when ex-cop Phil Broker gets a call for help from his ex-wife Caren. Caren left him years ago for Keith Angland, his former buddy on the St. Paul police force. Now, apparently, Angland's turned into a cowboy cop, maybe even a Mob-controlled rogue; at the very least, he's assaulted Caren and threatened her life. Broker has been out of uniform for a couple of years, busy caring for his 1-year-old daughter in a rural upstate backwater while his new wife is away on peace-keeping duty in the Balkans. He's heard rumors that Angland is being watched by the Feds, suspected of fingering an informant, but it doesn't touch him personally until Caren turns to him for help. She flees St. Paul and heads for Broker's hideaway with a suitcase full of money, an incriminating tape, and Tom James, a reporter with a gambling jones and a career that's on the skids. James hopes that latching onto Caren---not to mention the $2 million she's absconded with--will turn his luck around.  When Caren is killed, the reporter frames Angland, steals the money, and talks his way into the Witness Protection Program, which looks like the perfect ticket out of his dead-end life, especially with Caren's tape as a bargaining chip. The Feds think James walks on water, but Broker isn't convinced. Setting out to find James where the "Big Law" has hidden him, he discovers just how far over the edge both James and Angland have fallen, and who pushed them. An explosive thriller with plenty of action, edge-of-your-seat pacing, and an appealing hero who readers will look forward to encountering again.--Jane Adams