Counterfeit money. counterfeit lives. attorney david cole has moved from the big city to a small santa barbara law firm. he wants to slow down and work on his marriage, and on the temptations that beset it. but his move doesn't result in the simple, slow-paced practice he had imagined. when david's client, the reclusive millionaire lawrence hawthorne, is shot to death while lying in his hospital bed, david determines to find the killer. twin mysteries haunt him: who would kill a man on his deathbed? and where did hawthorne get his millions? with the help of his beautiful and irrepressible wife, penny, david follows a trail that leads through swiss banks to syrian terrorists and an international counterfeiting scheme that could endanger u.s. security. and more importantly, it threatens penny's life...and david's integrity.