"Of all the grifters, the confidence man is the aristocrat." -David Maurer, "The Big Con" Having successfully escaped the Southern California financial fast lane, former venture capitalist Bob Hawkins and his wife, Kay, are comfortably living "under the radar" in the rugged western slopes of the Rockies when a phone message suddenly awakens the special skills that Hawkins had carefully set aside ten years earlier. Within forty-eight hours of the unexpected call, Hawkins has assembled all of the pieces he needs to pull off a multimillion dollar sting against an old adversary-prominent San Diego attorney, Aaron Stein. Hawkins travels to San Diego and sets the plan into motion but soon discovers that unforeseen forces are beginning to gather; IRS CID, DEA Special Ops, local authorities, and professional hit men converge to threaten not only Hawkins's life, but also the critical timing of the operation itself. Caught in an accelerating storm of murder, deceit and greed, Hawkins must maintain absolute control, or everything could go disastrously wrong.