Jack MacTaggart

A newly minted member of Henley & Hargrove, Pasadena's oldest and snobbiest law firm, Jack MacTaggart is assigned to handle an insurance claim on behalf of socialite Sydney Everett. Hush Puppy, Sydney's champion show horse, has died unexpectedly, and attending veterinarian George Wells confides to Jack that the great horse's death was anything but natural. Jack's investigation leads him into the high-stakes world of professional show jumping and down a path to romance, intrigue, and an old blackmail scheme that further implicates his client.

Three weeks before Election Day, US Senate candidate Warren Burkett comes to the aid of a beautiful green-eyed lady, only to find himself alone and naked in a stranger’s home from which a priceless painting is missing. As the resulting scandal threatens to tilt the election, the painting turns up in a most unexpected place - and so does a dead body. Hired to defend Burkett and unravel the deepening mystery, Jack MacTaggert must traverse a minefield of ruthless politicians, felonious art dealers, swarming paparazzi, and a district attorney with a score to settle.

Monsieur Giroux is not a happy man. Of course, who could be happy while discussing the death of their son? Without an heir, his Château Giroux winery will be inherited by another family member, its grapes plowed under to make way for a lucrative real-estate deal. Yet Giroux believes that his son may still be alive and hires MacTaggart to investigate.

It isn’t entirely shocking that a man like film producer Ari Goldstone would be found murdered in his hotel suite, naked and tied to the bedposts. Goldstone, after all, had a reputation for sexual misconduct and was already defending lawsuits brought by a dozen aggrieved starlets. But the brutality of the crime takes even veteran homicide detectives aback. More unsettling still are the DNA test results, which conclusively point to disgraced financier, Jimmy Kwan, the “Chinese Bernie Madoff” and father of one of Goldstone’s accusers.