THE STEP BETWEEN

GGI, the year-and-a-half old security firm partnered by black attorney Carole Ann (C.A.) Gibson and black ex-homicide cop Jake Graham, has undertaken two new cases. Which is the one that sent a Range Rover to tail C.A.? Is multimillionaire Richard Islington, who hired them to find his heiress daughter Annabelle, dogging them, or is OnShore Manufacturing and its CEO Harry Childress keeping tabs on GGI as they oversee safety measures at its five-acre plant? Can there be a connection between the two? The plant burns, Childress dies, and his partner MacDonald may or may not be using his real name. Moreover, Islington is intent on tracking his daughter in the hope that she’ll lead him to his long-departed wife. Meantime, kidnappers snatch Jake’s wife; C.A. gets a gun permit; one family retainer is faithful, another not; and a drug distribution scheme sets brothers at odds before GGI sorts it all out—with considerable assistance from the state police of West Virginia and Maryland. The superpower resources of GGI—too many security gizmos, too much computer wizardry, too many devices for dealing with too many plot twists—keep C.A. (Where to Choose, p. 28, etc.) from wondering how many times she has to be imperiled before she realizes she’s in the wrong business.