Matters of Doubt: A Cal Claxton Mystery

Cal Claxton is determined to reinvent himself as a small-town lawyer in the aftermath of his wife’s suicide. Once a hard-charging LA prosecutor, he now lives in an old farmhouse overlooking the Oregon wine country. When a scruffy, tattooed kid shows up asking for help solving his mother’s cold case murder, Cal wants to say no. But something about the kid, who calls himself Picasso, touches Cal.

It turns out that Picasso is a gifted artist and one of the legions of street kids who are drawn to Portland’s Old Town. Cal accepts Picasso as a client, but things quickly turn ugly when Picasso is charged with the murder of his mother’s former boyfriend. Suddenly, Cal finds himself back in the game, pitted against the police, the media, a right-wing shock jock, a Russian cage fighter, and some of Portland’s most powerful citizens-upstanding and low-down.