San Francisco defense attorney Dismas Hardy takes on the apparently simple caseload of a lawyer who has disappeared and becomes embroiled in a murder case involving a National Guard Reservist who served in Iraq, the ex-Navy SEAL and private contractor who slept with the reservist's girlfriend, and, possibly, a conspiracy led by the U.S.

Just after twelve-year-old Emily and her family move to San Francisco, she teams up with new friend James to follow clues in an odd book they find, hoping to figure out its secrets before the men who attacked Emily's hero, publisher Garrison Griswold, solve the mystery or come after the friends.

"Dismas Hardy knows something is amiss with his trusted 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 with Phyllis is suddenly arrested at work for allegedly being an accessory to the murder of Hector Valdez, a coyote...