Descent into Danger

About the Book

The story begins with the murder of a United States Congressman, late at night, in a New York City subway. The seemingly hopeless defense of a drug user black musician is assigned to a high-powered, mainly corporate, law firm. Preliminary investigation lead a brooding, uneasy law firm partner, Jonathan Wright, born into Boston's social and cultural elite, to a 15-year-old street wise boy called T.K. and his older companion, a subway pickpocket referred to by his colleagues as Underground Arthur. Their information leads trial lawyer Wright, through a series of odd but connected events with three other deaths along the way --- first, to a college educated six foot eight pimp named Longjoker who specializes in runaway children. Soft spoken yet menacing, with close organized crime connections, his apartment is decorated like an underground cave. The pimp is further connected to a contract killer named The Sandman who becomes a central figure in the book. Wright is then led to a New York City apartment suite sex club for adults. Here a teenage girl named Sylvia works, who is connected to T.K., as well as to another teenager named Amanda whose death may be connected to the subway murder and a second one as well. A surprising revelation comes to Wright's attention in Washington, through a promiscuous young female assistant to a U.S. Congressman. This leads to the climax of the novel, which takes place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil through a direct confrontation between Jonathan Wright and The Sandman. The shocking resolution to everything that has transpired leaves the lawyer a fully changed man.

About the Author

Larry Alan Bear has been a trial lawyer, a campaign manager for a Massachusetts governor, a New York City commissioner of addiction services, a public affairs broadcaster for ABC radio in New York, a law professor and a business school professor as well. He has published three professional non-fiction books. This is his first novel.