A Complete Timeline of Major Events Leading up to Last Call

 

The Pardon,

Jack Swyteck is a young lawyer defending death row inmates while leading a personal life that could fill Cupid's Guide to Love and War (Idiot's Edition).  Things don't always go smoothly for Jack and Cindy Paige, but Jack knows she is the one for him—and so does a sadistic psychopath.  Two years ago, Jack's father, the "law-and-order" governor of Florida, sent a man to the electric chair even though he was Jack's client, and even though Jack insisted that the man was innocent.  Now, a mysterious stranger driven by revenge is blackmailing Harry and stalking Jack and Cindy, claiming that he can prove the governor executed an innocent man.

Beyond Suspicion,

An old girlfriend emerges, and it's more than just Jack and Cindy's shaky marriage that's in trouble.  The beautiful young Jessie Merrill is diagnosed with a deadly disease and given two years to live. She cuts a deal to sell her $3 million life insurance policy to investors for and immediate $1.5 million cash in hand.  The investors will collect the $3 million and double their money when she dies—soon, they hope.  Jessie's misdiagnosis changes everything:  the investors are after her, and she needs Jack's help.  When Jessie's body turns up in his bathtub, Jack is suddenly wanted for murder—and he's on a collision course with a possible killer who is beyond suspicion.

Last to Die,

Sparks are flying.  A doctor named Rene has caught Jack's eye, and for the first time since his divorce, Jack thinks he's in love.  Unfortunately, Rene lives in Africa.  Geography, however, is the least of their problems.  Rene's gorgeous and obscenely wealthy sister has been shot dead in Miami.  She left forty-eight million dollars to her enemies—left it for them to fight over, that is.  She named six heirs in her will, but there's a catch: No one gets a penny until all but one of the heirs are dead. It's survival of the greediest, and both Rene and Jack's newest client—a "reformed" hitman—are vying for the money.

Hear No Evil,

Sometimes an old girlfriend just won't go away—even when she's dead. Ten years ago, Jessie Merrill (Beyond Suspicion) gave up a baby boy for adoption and now, two years after her death, Jack learns that he may have been the father of that child.  Jack learns all of this only upon a most unusual—and stressful—introduction to the boy's adoptive parents.  The adoptive father was an officer at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo, Cuba.  The adoptive mother is charged with his murder.  Jack is her lawyer—and the boy is the key witness against her.   It's a trial that rocks Miami—and that holds shocking personal truths for Jack. 

Got the Look,

Jack Swyteck has a new girlfriend, Mia, and life is good—until Mia goes missing. Then Jack gets a one-two punch. Mia is married to one of Florida's richest men. And she is the victim of a kidnapper with a chilling ransom demand:  "Pay me what she's worth." It turns out that Jack is up against a serial kidnapper who is being tracked by FBI agent Andie Henning—a woman who both infuriates and fascinates Jack.  If the kidnapper's track record is any indicator, the consequences of paying too little are positively deadly. 

When Darkness Falls,

For years, Theo Knight has stood by Jack, ever since Jack proved him innocent and got him off death row for a murder he didn't commit.  It's an unusual friendship between a Yale-educated lawyer and a former gang-banger from Miami's toughest neighborhood. That friendship is put to the ultimate test when Jack's newest client—a homeless man called "Falcon"—holes up in a flea-bitten motel and takes Theo and three others hostage.  Falcon has some dark secrets behind his unusual demands—secrets that involve the mayor of Miami's beautiful twenty-eight-year-old daughter Alicia.  In a chilling stand-off that proves all too literally that "love is blind," it's up to Jack and a sightless but skilled hostage negotiator to unravel Alicia's family secrets and secure Theo's release in 18 hours of life-and-death suspense. 

Last Call,

Just as it seems that Theo Knight—of all people—is going to find the right woman before Jack does, along comes Andie Henning (Under Cover of Darkness; Got the Look).  Is this sharp, tough FBI agent who drives Jack crazy "the one"?  Jack seems to think so—until Theo's boyhood friend Isaac escapes from prison, and Andie is breathing down Theo's neck for—she thinks—helping his old friend on the run.  When Isaac turns up dead and Theo is a suspect, Jack needs Andie more than ever if he is to uncover the truth behind Isaac's murder and expose the web of greed and corruption that extends from Miami's Little Harlem to Miami's power elite.

Born to Run

Jack is forty-eeek!-and the rifts between father and son that were so public in The Pardon area finally behind Jack. But when the President of the United States taps retired Florida governor Harry Swyteck to replace the late vice president, both father and son find themselves in the clutches of a White House conspiracy with tentacles that reach back almost fifty years. Oh, my: Is that the former vide president floating face down in the black waters of the Florida Everglades? More important-and recurring character Andie Henning (Under Cover of Darkness; Got the Look; Last Call) really wants to know-is that a ring in Jack's pocket?

Afraid of the Dark

Jack's abuela always told him that relationships take work, but this is ridiculous. Is there any hope for an FBI agent who works undercover and a criminal defense lawyer who defends an accused terrorist who is charged with the murder of a teenage girl? Jack's latest case doesn't have just Andie Henning (Under Cover of Darkness; Got the Look; Last Call; Born to Run) shaking her head. Jack's friendship with blind hostage negotiator Vince Paulo (When Darkness Falls) is on the line when efforts to prove his client innocent draw Jack and Vince into the sinister underworld of cyberspace-and face to face with the monster who may have stolen Vince's sight.