From a bluff overlooking Georgia's untamed Chattooga River, an assassin fires three shots. The President of the United States is wounded; his best friend and a Secret Service agent are killed. Two days later, a man in Landover, Maryland, commits suicide and in the man's home is overwhelming evidence that he was responsible for the assassination attempt. Even after the assassin is found dead, Andy Banks is determined to dig a little deeper. He turns to Speaker of the House John Fitzgerald Mahoney. The Speaker has a guy--an under-the-radar, go-to guy he uses for things like this--things he can't afford to have connected to his office. The guy is Joe DeMarco, an honest lawyer with a sordid family history. After one meeting with Banks, DeMarco realizes he's in way over his head. But Mahoney finds the prospect of taking down the Secret Service Director irresistible and sets DeMarco on a trail that twists through the Secret Service, the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security and snakes all the way back to one of the more enduring mysteries of the twentieth century.