CONTEMPT OF COURT

That’s when Harry Wells, the man who loaned him the house, asks for a little favor in return.

A woman Harry knows named Emma Scott needs help. Her husband, one of the most powerful television producers in Hollywood, has filed for divorce, and she's stashed away five boxes of his company’s financial records to get him off her back. But now she’s scared. The documents tell a dangerous story about dubious sources of finance for some of America’s most popular television shows, millions in revenue that has disappeared offshore, and massive payments to companies that don't exist.

Charlie agrees to talk to Emma as a favor to his benefactor. Just talk, he emphasizes. That's all. He’s certainly not going to get involved in her divorce case. He takes her documents, all five boxes full of them, and agrees to see what she has and if they might help improve her bargaining position.

That’s when Emma abruptly vanishes.

So here Charlie is, left with all this evidence of financial monkey business in the television industry that he doesn’t want, and now there’s nobody he can give it back to. When a Los Angeles court serves him with a subpoena demanding he produce all the documents in court, things quickly get worse. As much as he would like to turn everything over to the judge and just wash his hands of the whole business, he can’t do that. Emma Scott’s documents are protected by attorney-client privilege, and he owes her both a legal and a moral duty to keep them confidential.

But the judge doesn’t see it exactly that way, and she’s not happy that Charlie does. She threatens to hold Charlie in contempt of court and jail him until he agrees to produce Emma Scott’s documents. All of them.

One night, Charlie wanders into a small Malibu bookstore and spots a photograph on the wall that includes a man he recognizes. The owner’s grandfather is Sandy Bouchier, the legendary defense attorney who clerked for the Supreme Court and famously fought for various causes in the courtroom, lost and otherwise, for almost six decades. Eighty years old now, Sandy is long retired from active practice, but Charlie sucks up his courage and asks Sandy if he’s willing to help. He is.

Working together, Charlie and Sandy come up with a strategy to keep Charlie from either turning over the documents or being held in contempt of court. But it only buys Charlie a few weeks, at most, and it’s certainly not going to be the end of Charlie’s problem. It may only be the beginning.

Now some very bad men know for certain that Charlie’s got proof of just how bad they actually are. Charlie will do everything he can to protect what Emma Scott gave him, but he knows there are people out there who will go to jail if they can’t keep those documents buried forever. And he’s pretty sure they’ll gladly kill him if that’s the only way they can do that.

So now Charlie is on the run, the trunk of his car filled with enough evidence to put half of Hollywood in prison. And the half of Hollywood it would put in prison isn't about to let Charlie get away.

Welcome to Malibu. The views are beautiful. It’s the secrets that can kill you.

“This is a best-of-the-best crime novel with a lawyer hero because Charlie Trust has to wrestle with the most difficult ethical issues that a lawyer faces in his search for justice. A great read!” - Michael Tigar, legendary defense attorney and author of SENSING INJUSTICE