Fair Is Foul and Foul Is Fair

Maverick hero and former Hollywood Division police detective Ben Malone, from Come What May, is back in another action-packed, thrilling adventure, this time as a Los Angeles private investigator.After resigning from the Los Angeles Police Department, Malone is making the transition to running his own private detective agency. A drop-dead gorgeous blonde, with an odd request, pays Malone a visit and asks for his help. The sultry, enchantress confides to Malone that she has just witnessed a murder, but can't go to the police with her story. She explains that she is married to a member of Los Angeles society's upper crust, but also moonlights at an upscale LA escort service. She is fearful that might all be exposed if she gets personally involved in a murder investigation, especially an investigation in which one of her own johns was the victim.Malone is a headstrong guy who doggedly follows his own personal code of ethics, but sometimes plays things a little fast and loose with other rules, not to mention the law. He also has a serious weakness when it comes to attractive women. Mesmerized by the strikingly beautiful woman, she easily gains his sympathies. A hefty upfront cash retainer helps seal the deal. Malone agrees to help her while promising to keep her identity a secret from the police.Malone devises a plan. All he has to do is find, identify, and implicate the murder suspects so that they come to the attention of the police. Then the criminal justice system can take its course without involving his client. All in all, at the beginning, Malone regards the case innocuous enough, and even an easy money assignment. That is until things start to unravel.Three more murders occur that are connected to the one witnessed by his client before Malone even gets started on the case. From there, like an out of control roller coaster, things go downhill fast and from bad to worse. First, Malone learns that the string of murders is mob-connected. The man believed behind them is a heavy hitter, the violent and ruthless head of the Ukrainian mafia in Los Angeles. He is a man who Malone soon learns will stop at nothing to get his hands on Malone's client. Malone's own love interest, feisty psychiatrist Sara Bernstein gets caught in the crosshairs when she abducted and held hostage by the mobster as leverage to force Malone to betray the whereabouts of his client. Along the way, Malone also discovers that things may not be as they first appeared with his drop-dead gorgeous client. She may be a femme fatale up to her pretty little ears in some criminal malfeasance of her own.Malone races against time, first to rescue the woman he loves, and then to sort the innocent from the guilty in time to escape in one piece from what rapidly evolves into a complicated web of deceit and criminal wrongdoing where it seems that fair is foul, and foul is fair.