Contempt of Court

Five boxes full of secrets. A missing wife. And a lawyer who just wants to be left alone. Atmospheric, sharp, and relentless, this is the story of a man who tried to walk away from the law, only to find it waiting for him in the California sun.

It's 1992 in Los Angeles. The riots are over, the Menendez brothers are awaiting trial, and Charlie Trust is living in a borrowed beach house in Malibu right next door to Farrah Fawcett and Ryan O'Neal just trying to figure out what comes next for him.

After inheriting a little money and a lot of burnout, Charlie left Virginia to run the Pacific Coast Highway in a cherry red 1969 Mustang. Now he spends his days reading Raymond Chandler paperbacks and watching the gulls on Carbon Beach.

But his quiet life of reinvention is interrupted when the friend who loaned him the house asks for a little favor in return. Talk with Emma Scott, a woman trapped in a divorce from one of Hollywood's most powerful television producers. Just one conversation. Just some friendly advice. How could Charlie possibly say no?

It turns out that Emma Scott isn't a scorned wife looking for casual advice. She's the keeper of her husband's darkest secrets. When she drops evidence of a huge international money laundering ring operating in the American television business right into Charlie's lap and then disappears into thin air, Charlie is left holding the bag. Literally.

What follows is a classic LA mystery with a modern twist. Charlie is dragged from his life on the beach into a world of high-priced fixers, old-money Brentwood estates, and shady PIs operating behind storefronts on Normandie Avenue. With no backup but a crusty eighty-year-old retired legal legend, an even older private investigator who swears he was Chandler's inspiration for Philip Marlowe, and the loaded Glock he keeps by his bedside, Charlie is just trying to survive long enough to find a way out of what that simple favor for a friend has gotten him into.

Set against the sun-soaked beaches of Malibu and the dark underbelly of 1990s Hollywood, CONTEMPT OF COURT is a razor-sharp legal thriller that asks, How far would you go to protect a client? And what if doing the right thing and protecting that client might get you killed?

For readers who like their heroes flawed, their lawyers cynical, and their body count rising, this is a darkly funny California noir thriller that combines the high-stakes contemporary tension of Michael Connelly with Raymond Chandler's world-weary vision of Los Angeles.

Charlie Trust is a fresh voice in legal thrillers. He's a true noir hero.