TIGHT LOOP

People Often Do Life-Altering Things That Make No Sense That Can’T Be Reasonably Explained. Afterward The Best They Can Do Is Move Ahead And Live With The Consequences.Two Years Have Slipped By Since Dirk Trude Made Such Choices—Leaving His Wife Famous Soap Opera Star Marlene Collins And Selling Out His Interest In A Successful Business To Best Friend Herb Kaplan—By Moving To Cabo San Lucas Mexico.Now Relaxing In A Cabo Bar Drinking Tequila Six Hundred Feet Above The Pacific Dirk Once Again Examines Those Choices. He Conjures An Image Of Kaplan. Thoughts Of His Best Friend Turn Into An Uneasy Premonition. Then There Are Images Of Gianna Marie Taylor An Enchanting Young Woman He Met Three Days Before.From His Reverie Dirk Hears Marlene'S Voice Real And In The Present. She Stands Over Him More Intoxicating Than Ever. Marlene Tells Dirk That Kaplan Has Been Murdered. The Police Have No Suspects. Marlene Is Afraid Kaplan Was Doing Business With Mac Remington A Sophisticated International Criminal.Marlene Asks Dirk To Come Back To Los Angeles To Settle Business And Personal Matters. It'S Obvious They’Re Still In Love Though The Obstacles That Caused Their Divorce Remain. Dirk Wavers But Refuses To Go Back And Dig Up The Past. Marlene Storms Away.Dirk Is Confused And Philosophical His Emotions On Hold. So That'S The Way It Goes In Life. Ex-Wife Shows Up And Tells Me Someone Murdered My Best Old Pal. I Go Out To Dinner With A Couple Of Clients And A Dazzling Young Woman I'Ve Known For Three Days.Hired Goons Sent By Mac Remington Arrive At Dirk'S Beach House The Following Morning. Remington Believes Dirk Is Still Partners With Kaplan And Possesses Information He Needs To Recover A Missing Shipment Of Pearls And Sapphires Worth Millions. Together Dirk And Gianna Get Rid Of The Goons In A Hard-Nosed Fight. Reluctantly Dirk Realizes He Has To Go Back To L.A.“Tight Loop” Is Dirk’S Story—And Kaplan’S Story As Dirk Unravels It—About An Elaborate Double Con Spawned By Jealousy Greed And A Desire For Revenge. This Con Initiated By Kaplan And Remington Draws Dirk Into A Sinister World He Never Imagined.To Stay Alive And Protect The People He Cares About Dirk Needs To Find The Jewels Before Remington. The Only Way To Do This Is To Dig Into The Soul Of His Dead Best Friend A Soul That Is Hidden In Encrypted Computer Files. With Help From A Computer Wizard Who Is A Former Lover Dirk Discovers That Kaplan Was A Very Different Man From The One He Thought He Knew.Dirk Is Now Thrust Into A Race Against Time To Uncover Kaplan’S Endgame Strategy. In The Process He Learns The Jewels Are Only Part Of The Mysterious Missing Shipment. The “Other Goods” Raise The Stakes Of The Game Connecting Dirk With Asian Thugs And A Counterterrorist Vigilante Roberto Sosa. As Kaplan Intended Dirk Must Set Up Remington To Take The Fall With The Asians And Convince Sosa He Is No Threat To Sosa’S Future Plans.And Of Course There Are Marlene And Gianna And Cabo—An Alluring Mixture Of Emotion And Personal Turmoil Presenting Dirk With The Opportunity To Finally Come To Terms With Himself.