New York Times bestselling author Robert Dugoni returns with his most exhilarating legal thriller to date, a pulse-pounding story of corporate greed, espionage, and the lengths one man is willing to go for justice. B odily Harm opens with a big win for David Sloane and his new partner, Tom Pendergrass, in a malpractice case centered on the death of a young child. But on the heels of this seeming victory, an unlikely character—toy designer Kyle Horgan— comes forward to tell Sloane that he’s gotten it all wrong: Horgan’s the one who’s truly responsible for the little boy’s death and possibly others—not the pediatrician Sloane has just proven guilty. Ordinarily, Sloane might have dismissed such a person as a crackpot, but something about this case has always troubled him—something that he couldn’t quite pinpoint. When Sloane tries to follow up with Horgan, he finds the man’s apartment a shambles— ransacked by unknown perpetrators. Horgan has vanished without a trace. Together with his longtime investigative partner Charles Jenkins, Sloane reexamines his clients’ son’s death and digs deeper into Horgan’s claims, forcing him to enter the billion-dollar, cutthroat toy industry. As Sloane gets closer to the truth, he trips a wire that leads to a shocking chain of events that nearly destroys him. To get to the bottom of it all and find justice for the families harmed, Sloane must keep in check his overwhelming desire for revenge. Full of nail-bitingly tense action scenes as well as edge-of-your-seat courtroom drama, Bodily Harm finds Robert Dugoni at the very top of his game. ""Bodily Harm" is as good as it gets. Another great page turner by Robert Dugoni. I couldn't put it down." --Stephen J. Cannell "Dugoni's impressive talent is on full display here. There's plenty of bark and bite--both readers and the characters are in for a wild ride. Don't miss this one." --Steve Berry "With each new novel, Robert Dugoni continues to prove both his talent and his craft. His books remind me of the best of John Grisham--only better! Read him now!" --James Rollins “"Bodily Harm" is as good as it gets. Another great page turner by Robert Dugoni. I couldn’t put it down.” —Stephen J. Cannell “Dugoni's impressive talent is on full display here. There's plenty of bark and bite—both readers and the characters are in for a wild ride. Don't miss this one." —Steve Berry “With each new novel, Robert Dugoni continues to prove both his talent and his craft. His books remind me of the best of John Grisham—only better! Read him now!” —James Rollins Robert Dugoni practiced as a civil litigator in San Francisco and Seattle, and in 1999 he left his law practice to write full time. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University with a degree in journalism and worked as a reporter for the Los Angeles Times before obtaining his doctorate of jurisprudence from the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law. A two-time winner of the Pacific Northwest Writers Association Literary Contest, he lives with his wife and two children in the Pacific Northwest. Bodily Harm A Novel By Robert Dugoni Pocket Copyright © 2011 Robert Dugoni All right reserved. ISBN: 9781416592983 PROLOGUE GUANGZHOU, CHINA It hurt to blink. The light stabbed at his eyes, shooting daggers of pain to the back of his skull. When he shut them an aurora of black and white spots lingered. Albert Payne had never been one to partake liberally in alcohol; not that he was a complete teetotaler either. He’d been hungover a handful of times during his fifty-six years, but those few occasions had been the result of unintended excess, never a deliberate intent to get drunk. So although he had little experience with which to compare it, his pounding head seemed a clear indicator that he had indeed drunk to excess. He’d have to accept that as so, because he could remember little about the prior evening. Each factory owner, along with the local officials in China’s Guangdong Province, had insisted on a reception for Payne and the delegation, no doubt believing their hospitality would ensure a favorable report. Payne recalled sipping white wine, but after three weeks the receptions had blurred together, and he could not separate one from the other. Coffee. The thought popped into his head and he seemed to recall that caffeine eased a hangover. Maybe so, but locating the magic elixir would require that he stand, dress, leave his hotel room, and ride the elevator to the lobby. At the moment, just lifting his head felt as if it would require a crane. Forcing his eyelids open, he followed floating dust motes in a stream of light to an ornate ceiling of crisscrossing wooden beams and squares of decorative wallpaper. He blinked, pinched the bridge of his nose, then looked again, but the view had not changed. A cold sweat enveloped him. The ceiling in his room at the Shenzhen Hotel had no beams or wallpaper; he’d awakened the previous three