'Where is Greg Downing?'

Sports Agent Myron Bolitar is in his new office on the top of a skyscraper in New York when two FBI agents ask him this very question.

The man they refer to is a top basketball player and Myron's former client and old rival. Greg's DNA, they tell him, has been found at the scene of a high-profile double-murder, and he is now their main suspect.

It can't be Greg, Myron tells the two agents: the reason he is Myron's 'former' client is because Greg is dead. He died three...