CITY OF ANGELS

Robert Binder is a partner in a prestigious law firm in LA as well as the director of RULA, his own brainchild, the Rural-Urban Legal Assistance program. His wife Ann Binder, who is African-American, is a highly-regarded economist working at the L.A. office of the Federal Reserve. Their son, John, the Binders believe, is a musical prodigy, a cellist, slated to enter the Eastman School of Music in the Fall. Theirs is a picture postcard, American dream family.

After leaving a party one summer evening, Ann takes ill and Robert volunteers to drive to the drugstore to pick up some medicine. While on his way, he notices a commotion on the sidewalk. Two men are trying to drag a woman into their van. She's screaming and none of the onlookers are making the slightest effort to rescue her. Reflexively Robert jumps from his car and intervenes. One of the men brandishes a gun but Robert manages to wrestle it from his hands. In the ensuing struggle, the gun goes off, killing the woman.

Robert is initially applauded for his heroic action but soon, goaded by the police and the racial politics of the city, the press takes up the scent, and doubts are raised about his innocence. Within days the lives of Robert, Ann, and their son, begin to unravel rapidly and alarmingly.

Called a "strong new talent" by Publisher's Weekly, Zachary Alan Fox is the author of four suspense novels and two detective novels. He taught Organizational Behavior at a California State University where he is a professor emeritus. In an earlier life, he was an accountant for General Motors, and worked in the retail trade.