TOO MANY CLIENTS

Sleuthing for her husband doesn’t prevent Kirsten, of Wild Onion, Ltd. (All the Dead Fathers, 2005, etc.), from taking on a host of other clients whose interests may or may not align with his.

Johnny O’Hern was a dirty cop who worked for shady developer Barry Zelander and God knows who else. Unfortunately, one of the elses happens to be Kirsten’s lawyer husband Dugan, who let O’Hern steer accident victims his way. Under federal investigation himself, O’Hern threatens to tell the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission about their relationship. So when someone pops O’Hern, Chicago police investigators Kennison and Newhouse fixate on Dugan, who realizes that disbarment may be the least of his worries. Kirsten tries to work alternative theories, and pretty soon connected guy Polly Morelli makes her an offer she can’t refuse: Keep nosing around and give him weekly reports on what she turns up. Johnny’s brother Richard also wants a piece of Kirsten’s action, so Wild Onion ends up working for all three. But when she gets a call indicating that O’Hern’s death may be linked to the murder of Father Landrew after the priest spent a week at the Fair Hope Clinic in Guyana—where mysterious helicopters crossed the border by night into Venezuela—Kirsten quickly realizes she may be into something even wilder than the Onion can handle.

Walker’s fifth entry lets Kirsten do what she does best: get oversold on everything except her rock-solid relationship with her ever-lovin’ bad boy Dugan.