He took the case for easy money. Now he's fighting for his life.

Attorney Daniel Raine is hired by a long-lost friend, Sean Eriksen, to sue a former football star who broke his nose in a bar fight.

Raine thinks it will be an easy payday. The case is a slam-dunk, so he can just wait for the county prosecutor to deliver a guilty verdict and then cash in.

But things go sideways when Eriksen is accused of taking revenge by murdering one of the football star’s colleagues.

Now Raine must defend his friend against a murder charge—not easy, because Eriksen was seen fleeing the scene. And as Raine digs deeper, he realizes his real adversary is a powerful figure who is hiding in the shadows.

With a star witness determined to bury his client, a body count that keeps rising, and threats arriving after dark, Raine must turn the courtroom into a battlefield—exposing a lethal criminal conspiracy one question at a time.

Published
May 24, 2026
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Author

Stephen Penner

Stephen Penner is an author, artist, and attorney from Seattle, Washington. Born and raised near Detroit, Michigan, Stephen was writing murder mysteries and fantasy adventures while still in elementary school. In college, he studied languages and spent a year living in Europe. He attended law school at the University of Michigan and moved to Seattle after earning his law degree. Stephen began his legal career as a criminal defense attorney in downtown Seattle, appearing in federal, state, and municipal courts throughout the State of Washington. After several years of defense work, Stephen 'switched sides' and became a prosecutor. He has been…