Success is fleeting; nobody knows this better than Amanda Jaffe. She had been the rising star of Portland's legal community, but in a cruel twist of irony the same case that put her on the map -- the Cardoni trial, which pitted Amanda against a brilliant sociopath, has left her traumatized, doubting her instincts, and shunning the limelight.
This reticence ends when she agrees to handle the case no one else will touch. Jon Dupre, who runs an upscale call-girl service, is accused of murdering a U.S. senator. Dupre claims to possess proof of the existence of a secret society of powerful men who have banded together for a commonly held political agenda. The rite of passage that binds them together is murder.
To Amanda these seem the desperate claims of a man lying to save his own skin -- until she is pressured to walk away from the case. Determined to conquer the fear and psychological trauma that has plagued her since Cardoni, she refuses to abandon her investigation. It's a decision that will place her and those she loves directly in the path of a deadly juggernaut with ambitions that extend all the way to the presidency of the United States.
