Following the loss of his wife and child, Jeremy Michaels buries himself in finding what solace he can by giving voice to the lost dogs and stray cats of the world until an announcement by Buckingham Palace shatters his glass cocoon. Thomas Thoreaux, the village hermit who his boyhood testimony sent to prison, is to be knighted for still classified services rendered in World War II. His editor sends him back to unravel the mystery, but Jeremy soon finds himself at risk of losing the job he uses as a crutch to hobble on through life. First, his just-published exposé disclosing rampant corruption within the local longshoremen’s union falls apart when his key source vanishes following the disclosure he duped Jeremy to conceal his theft of union funds. Then the hometown paper out-scoops him when it reveals Thoreaux worked inside the French Resistance as part of England’s elite Special Operations Executive. But when Thoreaux refuses the knighthood, Jeremy has a chance to save his job if he can uncover why.

Calvin Samuels is a public defender with a passion for sticking by the underdog. His clients are desperate men and woman with desperate cases. Like John Rogers. Although Samuels saved him from a life behind bars, he couldn’t save his life. Within months of his release, Rogers’ body is fished from the Ohio River.