Duplicitous: A Marvin Tanner Novel (Volume 1)
by Bernard Alexander McNealy

Meet Los Angeles based mediator Marvin Tanner. By every measure, Tanner is a smart, good, decent and honest man. He’s also got an eye for women and enjoys their pleasures, and without apology. Following a successful career in the Canadian Football League as a cornerback and pulling in mid six-figures, Tanner retired to the warmth of Southern California. People come to Marvin to mediate and negotiate disputes outside of court. He knows his value and charges accordingly. He’s tough suave, sophisticated and can handle almost any situation. Until… An elderly and rich Jewish widow enlists Tanner to negotiate the return of a valuable South Seas pearl and Chinese jade necklace. His client wants to identify the thief —- maybe for her own revenge. The list of suspects is plentiful including the widow’s effete son, the son’s nymphomaniac wife, and the widow’s pretty live-in black secretary. Secrets are exposed involving murder, mobsters and corrupt cops bent on protecting their dirty secrets, as well as keeping Tanner from recovering the necklace. And in the middle of this Tanner’s lovely cousin, psychologist and pastor Dr. Jeanette Rivers asks Marvin to help a politician on the comeback, thwart a blackmailer. No matter who it is, everybody is guilty of something. And, they will do whatever is necessary to quiet skeletons from rattling. In other words, all are duplicitous.