โThis is the eighteenth Swyteck novel sinceย The Pardonย (1994), and itโs just as good as the rest. Grippando keeps coming up with complex and timely cases, and this one is first-rate.โย ย โย Booklist
A contentious intellectual piracy case leads to an unsolved murder, and Jack Swyteckโs clientโa pop music iconโis the accused killer.
Piracy costs the movie and music industry billions. No one has been able to stop it. But that wonโt stop Miami criminal defense lawyer Jack Swyteck. His latest client, Imani Nichols, is a Grammy-winning popstar whose career has skyrocketed. Despite her success, sheโs the most underpaid superstar on the planet because of an onerous record contract she signed as a teenager with her now ex-husband Shaky Nichols, who has made himself rich off her royalties.
Preferring to see thieves profit from her music than let her ex-husband pocket one more dime, Imani takes to social media and tells her millions of fans to โgo pirateโ and download her music illegally. Her hardball tactic leads to scorched-earth litigation, and now she needs Jackโs help.
The case takes a deadly turn when salacious allegations of infidelity send Imani and Shaky down a path of mutual assured destruction, each implicating the other in the unsolved murder of Imaniโs extra-marital lover twelve years ago. Tyler McCormick died of asphyxiation, and his body was found in Biscayne Bay, chained to a piling with the words ""goodbye girl"" impressed on his chest. Despite their fierce denials, Imani and Shakey are both indicted for murder, leading to a sensational trial that exposes shocking secrets about their failed marriage, their cut-throat business partnership, and Imaniโs astonishing success.
Yet as Jack discovers, uncovering the truth about the killing and the cryptic โgoodbye girlโ wonโt just exonerate or convict his client, her ex, and their music empire. It may shape the future of the entire recording industry.
James Grippando is a New York Times bestselling author with more than thirty books to his credit, including those in his acclaimed series featuring Miami criminal defense attorney Jack Swyteck, and is the winner of the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction. He is also a trial lawyer and teaches law and literature at the University of Miami School of Law. He lives and writes in South Florida.