Thumbs Down

The telephone''s insistent ringing at three in the morning snatched Sam Workman from dreamless sleep.

"Hello," he mumbled.

"This is a warning," said a digitally altered voice. "Leave Betterton now! If you don''t, you won''t live long enough to regret it."

"Who is this?" Sam angrily demanded to a dead line.

"Unknown name, unknown number," blinked the call identifier.

"Coward!" Workman growled and slammed down the receiver.

The call was the first episode in a conspiracy to force Sam and his business, B&W Concrete, out of Betterton or destroy them. Followed were attempts to oust B&W from two construction projects, a hospital addition and an engine plant, totaling $400 million in construction costs to yield B&W $10 million profits.

Sam retains attorney Penn Roman to stem the tide of disastrous actions drowning B&W in a flood of claims of incompetency and fraud and more threats and violence against Sam, Penn, and Penns family.

When a testing lab employee working on the projects disappears, and the newspaper prints libelous articles condemning B&W, Penn and Sam find themselves entangled in a web of greed, deceit, violence, and murder.

Courageously, they face the schemers in an explosive and telling trial to the finish.