Corporate lawyer Elizabeth Carlyle is under a lot of pressure. Her prestigious New York law firm is working on the most high-stakes case in company history defending a prominent bank. When Elizabeth gets the news that one of her junior associates has lost his phone - and the secret documents that were on it - she needs help. Badly.

Enter ex-CIA officer Valencia Walker, a high-priced fixer who gets called in when governments, corporations, and plutocrats need their problems solved discretely. But things get complicated when the missing phone is retrieved: Somebody has already copied the documents, and now they're blackmailing the firm. When the situation gets murkier still - hinting that darker forces may be churning below the surface - Elizabeth and Valencia must maneuver and outmaneuver whomever is behind this and, most importantly, keep their hands clean.

This is a world of private security, private diplomacy, and private justice. A sharply drawn cast of characters - dirty lawyers, black-market traders, Russian criminals, and extrajudicial actors - all take part in this breakneck tour through New York. Authentic, tense, and impossible to pause, Clean Hands gives a vivid look at the connections between corporation, government, and underworld.