Justin Wright is a collector...of things and people. Nothing in his multi-billion dollar empire was more precious to him than his wife, Judy. And nothing had ever threatened that empire...until the night he discovered Judy's dead body in the foyer of their Palos Verdes mansion. Sawyer Black is a retired LAPD homicide detective who now writes crime novels, some of which have been made into feature films. He leads an idyllic life in Palos Verdes and spends most evenings sipping brandy while petting fish in his koi pond and watching the sun melt into the Pacific. But his life, not unlike the lives of the characters in his novels, is not always what it seems. His marriage is in trouble, he's drinking too much...and his friend's wife has just been murdered. When Justin Wright becomes the prime suspect in his wife's murder, and his life and freedom hang in the balance, he turns to Sawyer for help. But Sawyer is not sure he can save his friend...until he saves himself.
About the Author: Stephen Smoke is an accomplished novelist, screenwriter, musician, and businessman, Stephen Smoke successfully navigates the worlds of art and business. He is the author of 30 published books (20 novels), including Black Butterfly (HarperCollins), Pacific Coast Highway (HarperCollins), Pacific Blues (HarperCollins), and The Prince of Palos Verdes (White Lighthouse Books), Cathedral of the Senses, and I, Walt Whitman (summer 2012 release) under his own and other names. In 2011 he wrote and published the first novel with its own embedded soundtrack (Cathedral of the Senses; for the iPad). During the summer of 2012 Stephen will publish two other embedded soundtrack multimedia novels (Trick of the Light, which was originally published in 1989, and I, Walt Whitman). Besides becoming the first novelist to write and embed a soundtrack in his novel, Stephen will soon become the only author in the world to have published three embedded soundtrack, mulitimedia novels. He has also written and directed feature films, including "Street Crimes" (starring Dennis Farina) and "Final Impact," and has written screenplays for others, including "Magic Kid." He founded and published Mystery Magazine, and published the first online mystery magazine (Hamilton Caine's Mystery Digest, on CompuServe). Mr. Smoke is also a published songwriter, and recorded an album (in support of his novel, Trick of the Light) on which several well-known musicians, including Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member, Garth Hudson (the keyboard player in Bob Dylan's backup band, The Band), played on various tracks. He is also a member of ASCAP and regularly collects royalties for music he has written for feature films. He occasionally performs "Storyteller Concerts," during which he plays songs from his books, explaining the context in which the songs were written and how they pertain to the novels.