Lawyer Dismas Hardy of San Francisco is hired to defend a man accused of mercy-killing his father who had Alzheimer's disease. The man denies administering the deadly morphine, but in that case who did? By the author of Guilt.

Dismas Hardy is looking forward to cutting back his work hours and easing into retirement after recovering from two gunshot wounds. He is determined to spend more time with his family and even reconnect with his distant son, Vincent. But Dismas just can't stay away from the courtroom for long and soon he is pulled into an intense family drama with fatal consequences. Grant Wagner, the vigorous patriarch of the Wagner family and its four-generations...

"Dismas Hardy knows something is amiss with his secretary, Phyllis. Her out-of-character behavior and sudden disappearances concern Hardy, especially when he learns that her convict brother--a man who had served twenty-five years in prison for armed robbery and attempted murder--has just been released. Things take a shocking turn when Phyllis is suddenly arrested at work for allegedly being an accessory to the murder of Hector Valdez, a coyote who'd...