"Alex Sand was spending the evening at home playing basketball with his two young sons when all three were shot in cold blood. A wealthy federal judge, there's no short list of people who could have a vendetta against Sand, but the gruesome murders, especially that of his children, turn their St. Paul community on its head. Sand was on the verge of a major donation to a local housing charity, Heart/Twin Cities, and with the money in limbo, eyes suddenly...

It was a crime so brutal, it changed the lives of even the most hardened homicide cops. The Haas family murders left a scar on the community nothing can erase, but everyone agrees that convicting the killer, Karl Dahl, is a start. Only Judge Carey Moore seems to be standing in the way. Her ruling that Dahl's prior criminal record is inadmissible raises a public outcry--and puts the judge in grave danger.

"The murder of Judge Hugo Jackson is out of Detective Simon Ziele's jurisdiction in more ways than one. It's high profile enough to command the attention of the notorious new police commissioner, since Judge Jackson was presiding over the sensationalist trial of Al Drayson. Drayson, an anarchist, set off a bomb at a Carnegie wedding, but instead of killing millionaires, it killed passersby, including a child. Furthermore, Simon's assigned precinct...

In suburban Georgetown, a killer's Reeboks whisper on the floor of a posh home. In a seedy D.C. porno house, a patron is swiftly garroted to death. The next day America learns that two of its Supreme Court justices have been assassinated. And in New Orleans, a young law student prepares a legal brief. To Darby Shaw it was no more than a legal shot in the dark, a brilliant guess. To the Washington establishment it's political dynamite. Suddenly Darby...

On what is supposed to be a quiet long weekend in New Hampshire, Deputy U.S. Marshal Mackenzie Stewart is viciously attacked at the lakefront cottage of her friend, federal judge Bernadette Peacham. Mac fends off her attacker, but he manages to escape. Everything suggests he's a deranged drifter, until FBI special agent Andrew Rook arrives. With Rook, Mac broke her own rule not to get involved with anyone in law enforcement, but she knows he isn't...