I wonder if Patrick Hoffman chose CLEAN HANDS as the title of his latest thriller for its irony. The term refers to a legal principle that one party cannot seek equitable relief or claim an equitable defense if that party has itself engaged in inappropriate behavior. In courts of equity, the clean hands doctrine is as old as the law itself. On the pages of Hoffman’s fast-moving novel, readers may ponder if any of these unique characters have anything other than the dirtiest of hands as well as hearts and minds.

The book begins one typical weekday morning when Chris Crowley, a young associate attorney at the Wall Street law firm of Carlyle, Driscoll, and Hathaway, is the apparent victim of a random pickpocket. The theft turns out to be more than an ordinary street crime; it is a targeted attack on Crowley’s cell phone, which contains copies of important documents from a major lawsuit that he and his firm are litigating. This high-stakes case involves two major banks, one of which is part of the Calcott Corporation, Carlyle’s biggest client. Without the enormous fees that Calcott pays out, the firm probably would not exist.

"There is no violence, car chases through city streets, gun duels or sadistic killers in CLEAN HANDS. Still, this is a fast-paced story with entertaining dialogue and a cast of unforgettable characters."

Large law firms engaging in million-dollar litigation are prepared to confront the daily disasters that regularly occur as they get ready for trial. Elizabeth Carlyle, the managing partner of Carlyle, Driscoll, and Hathaway, springs into action. Even though Carlyle has her own in-house investigators, including veterans of the FBI, she knows that she needs to seek outside assistance from what lawyers might refer to as an “off-the-books” team. So she enlists the services of Valencia Walker, a former CIA agent with a talented team of co-workers who earn huge fees discreetly helping governments, corporations and wealthy individuals solve problems by working outside the normal course of business.

CLEAN HANDS is a noir journey through the streets and neighborhoods of New York, where characters ranging from Russian mobsters to black-market traders all become involved in the search for Crowley’s cell phone and its contents. At multiple junctures in the investigation, readers may believe that the threat has been averted, but soon will discover that is not the case. The twists and turns will bend your reading mind into a pretzel, but it will be enjoyable.

Mystery novels come in all shapes, sizes, forms and plots, as do the detectives and villains who occupy their pages. There is no violence, car chases through city streets, gun duels or sadistic killers in CLEAN HANDS. Still, this is a fast-paced story with entertaining dialogue and a cast of unforgettable characters. And the end will leave you with just enough unanswered questions that you may want to go back to the beginning to see what you might have missed.