Tyler Pierce, a newly admitted attorney, visits his father's Maui ranch for the first time and falls in love with Hawaii. He decides to start his solo practice right there in paradise. But he is determined to champion the underdog rather than be a flashy international lawyer like his father had been. However having lost his law license, his father wants Tyler to work with him, enabling him to return to his former business by using Tyler as the attorney of record for his deals. Tyler resists. He has been estranged from his alcoholic, domineering, disgraced and disbarred father since he ran over his best friend. Tyler doubts working with him is advisable or even feasible.

Then Lei, a Chinese woman from Amsterdam, walks into Tyler's modest office above a surf shop needing counsel for her brother who has been arrested for using a false passport. This seeming minor matter balloons into a major one when Tyler learns the feds suspect Lei's brother is a notorious arms dealer they have wanted to catch for years because Lei's brother was carrying business documents that concerned the wanted arms dealer. Lei insists Tyler go to Amsterdam with her for a few days to gather documents proving her brother is not the arms dealer- all expenses paid and with a very big fee. Tyler needs the money to get his practice off the ground and prove to his father he can make it on his own.

Lei's family has known the arms dealer's family for decades. In WW II the families' patriarchs had smuggled arms for the Dutch Resistance. After the war Lei's family built a dry cleaning empire while his once-partner dealt in surplus arms. When 9-11 made arms dealing too dangerous, the arms dealer's family asked to resume their partnership with Lei's family. When they turned the arms dealer's family down, the infuriated criminals vowed to bankrupt them.

Desperate for dirt to use for leverage to fend off the arms dealers' attack, Lei's brother had gotten some of their business documents in Hong Kong and flown to Hawaii to follow up some leads. He used the false passport because he was wanted by Interpol for charges from a bar fight. So Tyler flies off with Lei to Amsterdam still treating the case as a mistaken identity case. He doesn't like that the trip is the jet set kind of thing his father did, but it was still a lot of money for a few days' work. Tyler expects his father to be impressed with him getting such a big fee. But his father goes ballistic and orders him to get on the next plane home. Tyler hangs up on him. It's Tyler's decision to make, and Tyler's life to live.

Just as they are landing at Schiphol, Amsterdam's airport, Lei asks Tyler to help her track down the principal arms dealer. Tyler turns her down flat. He feels she has manipulated him, pulling off a bait-and switch. He had agreed to prove Lei's brother's identity, not find any arms dealers. But the feds could easily suspect her brother is complicit even if he isn't the arms dealer himself. So Lei convinces Tyler the only way to free her brother is to feed the feds the wanted arms dealer's exact, real time location. Through their Chinese expat community connections Lei's family finds the arms dealer is presently in the hash-farming region of Morocco- a no-man's land that even the police give a wide berth. And Tyler agrees to go with Lei to find the arms dealer, get photos of him and provide the feds his exact present location. Nothing more.

Betrayed by Lei's evil uncle, they are hunted by the arm dealer's henchmen from the minute they land in Morocco. They are armed with only luck, guile and a WW II pistol. The ensuing chase from Tangier's old city through the Rif Mountains down to the Mediterranean coast ensnares them in a swap with Islamic terrorists of two tons of hash for a dozen Chinese shoulder-fired missiles. Captured and escaping several times, Tyler faces heartrending decisions and surprising twists revealing the cryptic meaning of the I Ching's hexagram 61, Inner Truth.
About the Author: AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Aloha! My pen name is Philip Dole derived from my full legal name- Lunsford Dole Phillips. I have been married to a wonderful Swedish woman for 45 years. I broke my neck 42 years ago, skiing at Sugarloaf in the beautiful state of Maine. I've been a quadriplegic ever since.
But my life is full. I have five siblings and am smack in the middle. So I've been little brother and big brother. My father was career military; so we moved every few years. Always being the new kid meant learning how to leave old friends and how to make new ones.
I'm an Eagle Scout. I went to a prestigious prep school until I was expelled just short of graduation. I was an athlete and played football freshman year at University of Michigan as a scout team quarterback and defensive back. But my teammates were way better than I. I was never going to see the field. So I joined the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity and became a 70's non-violent anti-war activist. After graduation in 1972 I couldn't stomach more school. I wanted to see the world. So off I was.
I outfitted myself for any opportunity- tent, sleeping bag, hammock, frisbee, rubber ball, harmonica, spyglass and even a full dress outfit- dark blue suit, white shirt, red tie and black loafers. I explained it was my meet the queen clothes. My aim was to be prepared for whatever might come my way.
I bought a $125 student fare steerage ticket on the Cristoforo Colombo of Italy's national transatlantic line and started my journey to wherever life would take me. I left New York, waved goodbye to Lady Liberty from the aft deck and disembarked in Lisbon. My vague destination was sub-Sahara Africa to see animals before they were gone. I walked from Lisbon to Gibraltar. I stayed in Morocco a year. Then I spent another year seeing Europe. I lived another year in Switzerland and then two more years in Sweden where I wooed and married my wonderful wife.
We settled in Maine, skied the mountains in winter and sailed the coast in summer. But my catastrophic injury ended our vagabond life. I rehabilitated in Portland by going to law school. However snow-covered sidewalks and wheelchairs are not compatible.
So after a year as a prosecutor in York County, we moved to Hawaii. I joined an insurance defense firm and learned I'm a bad employee. It seems I insist on doing things my way. I quit and started my own firm. I hired an associate. That taught me I'm also a bad employer for the very same reason. I guess I'm only fit to be on my own. So I've been a sole practitioner concentrating on civil rights plaintiffs' litigation for 20 years.
I started this novel long ago, but it languished in a drawer until the pandemic kept me inside for a year. It's been the perfect chance to get serious about finishing this fast-paced, exciting yarn about appearances and reality that's full of unexpected twists and turns. Viola! I hope you like it.