Phil Bookman

Abandoned Phil Bookman

When she was two years old, Sally Roquette's mother walked out on her and her father, never to return. But she never missed her mom. Sally was her father's princess, a prop in his well-honed con game featuring a down-on-his-luck single father and his adorable but homeless daughter. Her mother had just gotten in the way between them.

Eight years later, as Sally once more played her part in his oft-repeated scam, Emmanuel Roquette left the little girl alone in a park, also never to return. Ten-year-old Sally, devastated at the loss of her beloved father and certain that she was somehow to blame for his disappearance, spent the next several years in a series of foster homes. And grew up believing that she was unlovable and had deserved to be cast aside.

Now a grown woman known as Sally Rocket, she spots a man she is certain is her long-lost father in a packed hockey arena, then loses sight of him in the crowd. Next day, Sally asks private investigator Joe Brink to help her find the man who abandoned her in that park years ago. Sally wants to confront him and get revenge. It's a favor Joe is happy to do for his best friend, unaware that he and Sally are entering a maze of treachery, deception, betrayal and murder that will threaten Sally's freedom and unalterably change her life.