The Counterfeit Detective

When his best informant, John Hwa, is stabbed to death, Theo Jones believes the family ‘curse’ that has claimed generations of men in his family will come true. The Manhattan private investigator knows Hwa was likely killed in retaliation for a tip; if so, the killers will come after him next. He seems fated to die young and violently like his brother George, who died in the 9/11 terrorist attack, and his father in a construction accident. He realizes that specializing in knockoffs was his downfall. When he started out twenty years ago, the counterfeiters were street peddlers like Hwa selling knockoff Rolexes and designer jeans, now organized crime and violent criminals are selling fake automobile parts, birth control pills, and cancer medications. His life is in constant danger. He’s determined to apprehend Hwa’s killers and infiltrates an interstate knockoff ring―but his investigation is stymied after his wife, Linda, is terrorized by anonymous telephone death threats. She knows about the family curse and dislikes the dangerous profession. After a second phone threat, she flees with their son. He suffers a personal crisis and must decide what is real and what is fake, whether hanging onto his family is more important than a career as a private investigator. To answer that question, he’ll have to survive a death trap, only then will he discover the caller’s identity and the truth about the family curse. (Paul Paradise)