Don Robak--the small-town criminal

lawyer who prefers sleuthing to civil

cases--is back in the latest of Joe L.

Hensley s highly acclaimed crime novels.

Robak s old friend and colleague Judge

Steinmetz needs his help in the worst

way: a $50,000 ransom note for his

estranged daughter has landed him in a

hospital bed, paralyzed with a stroke.

And there are those who are looking to

see him stay there...permanently. He

hasn t seen his daughter since she dis-

appeared into the drug scene twelve

years ago at the age of nineteen, and the

only way he can save himself and his

daughter is to call on Robak s talents.

The search fi)r Gail Marie Steinmetz

leads Robak into the sleazy netherworld

of pimps, hustlers, and junkies who live

in the tenderloin district of Capitol City,

but the trail gets hotter away from the

big city as he is drawn to his boyhood

town of Bington.

As he gets closer to the answers, the

questions start getting dangerous. The

people involved in drug-trafficking and

the local politicos are starting to look

alike and it s getting hard to tell the dif-

ference between the good guys and the

bad guys. Robak finds himself fighting

for his life on his own turf and he s not

sure who the winner will be.