SUSPENSE:  The First Law: They date back to the wilder days of San Francisco's vigilante past, a private police force that keeps watch for paying clients. Unfortunately, Sam Silverman - an elderly pawnshop owner and a friend of Lt. Abe Glitsky's father - could no longer afford Patrol Special protection, and he may have paid with his life. Dismas Hardy, putting together a high-stakes lawsuit against the security firm, steps cautiously into a world where the only law is survival...

The Second Chair: Dismas Hardy’s up-and-coming associate, Amy Wu, brings him a high-profile case: Andrew Bartlett, the seventeen-year-old son of a prominent San Francisco family, has been arrested for the double slaying of his girlfriend and his English teacher. Determined to get the case into juvenile court, and overwhelmed by the mounting evidence against her client, Wu asks Hardy to sit second chair for her in Bartlett’s defense.

The Motive: It starts with a double homicide. Because of the high profiles of the victims, the mayor of San Francisco herself demands that a high-ranking detective be put on the case. And so Abe Glitsky is thrust into the controversial investigation. Dan Cuneo, the officer already working the case, is immediately wary of Glitsky. Matters are made worse when Cuneo starts to focus on his primary suspect - who also happens to be an old girlfriend of Dismas Hardy.