The Answer Man

They call him the Answer Man. As a lie detector operator, he's an expert in the science of truth... and the art of lies--and both are coming in handy. Because Ken Parker has been in a bad way. His business isn't making enough money to support him and his sick brother. The repo men are after his MG. And an eviction notice has just been nailed to his office door.

Then Myth Daniels, the most beautiful woman he's ever set eyes on, walks into his favorite bar. Little does he realize that everything is about to change. Five minutes after they meet, she takes him home, to a posh Atlanta neighborhood of fancy cars, manicured lawns, and security gates. And that's when she offers him $50,000 in cash for one job.

Myth Daniels is a lawyer, and running into Ken at the bar was no accident. Her client Burton Sabini stands accused of embezzling $12 million from his company. Now she's offering a deal to Ken Parker: Teach her client how to beat the polygraph, and Ken will walk away rich. Not exactly ethical... but ethics don't pay the rent.

But Ken--more than anyone--should know the price of a lie. Just days after he takes the deal, two bodies turn up brutally murdered, and the one link between them is Ken. Now the only way out is to find the $12 million before his life crumbles completely. Even if the search marks him as a suspect in the two murders. Even if it makes him a target for the real killer. As he's drawn deeper into an explosive game of greed and violence, the question will be how to stay alive. And this time, not even the Answer Man knows.

A gritty, gripping debut thriller, Roy Johansen's The Answer Man is a pulse-pounding novel of dangerous seduction and unrelenting suspense.

Roy Johansen's first screenplay, Murder 101, was produced for cable TV and won an Edgar Award as well as a Focus Award, which is sponsored by Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, and Martin Scorsese. He has written projects for Disney, MGM, United Artists, Universal, and Warner Bros. He lives in southern California with his wife, Lisa.