Knight and Devlin

Amid the flash and din of Boston's raucous Chinese New Year's celebration, an elderly man is shot while watching the parade from his window. Anthony Bradley, the son of an African-American judge, is standing across the street at the time and is immediately arrested for the crime. Michael Knight, a young lawyer who's going places, is surprised when Judge Bradley asks him to defend his son in such a high profile and politically delicate case.

After graduating from Harvard Law with his closest friend John McKedrick, Michael Knight takes a job with his mentor, legendary trial attorney Lex Devlin, while John becomes sole associate of a notorious mob lawyer. Michael never lost hope that John McKedrick would escape to "cleaner pastures" - until John is murdered in a car bombing bearing the signature of his questionable clientele. How could two friends who were so close have taken such wildly divergent paths?

Michael Knight and Lex Devlin agree to defend a jockey accused of murdering a fellow jockey during a race at Boston's Suffolk Downs. Michael's expertise in the machinations of horse racing is expected to serve them well. But a personal attachment to the murdered jockey thrusts Michael and Lex into the midst of conflict between Boston's Irish mafia and remnants of the terrorist branch of the Irish Republican Army. Now they are in the crosshairs of both, and the brutality of these combatants knows no bounds.

What do Boston, Dublin, and Sierra Leone have in common? The movement of blood diamonds at enormous profit but grave human expense: mafia killings in Boston and Ireland and child enslavement and murder in Sierra Leone. And who is ensnared in the middle of all of this Michael Knight and Lex Devlin. Can they stop the enormously profitable trade of these tainted jewels? They must come between the Italian mafia in North Boston and the Irish mafia in South Boston including some remnants of the IRA in Ireland.

Danger escalates as Michael Knight and Lex Devlin enter into the defense of a Puerto Rican jockey charged with felony murder as a result of a fixed race at Boston's Suffolk Downs. As their investigation exposes the jockey's role, they become embroiled in a conflict between two Puerto Rican crime gangs. One of these gangs is aligned for the first time with Boston's Italian mafia in tapping into almost limitless profits from the illicit trade of exotic and endangered species.

An authentic Stradivarius violin turns up in Romania. A Stradivarius is rare enough, but this one is even more special. It is thought to hold the code disclosing the location of a treasure hidden in the 15th century. The violin is steeped in haunting mystique: It is believed to have been hidden by Vlad Dracula, whose historic tyranny led to the fabrication of the myth of vampirism. Russian, Chinese, and Romanian gangs centered in Boston want the code and all of them are hot on the trail.