THE REAL STORY, a mystery Confined to a pediatric hospital at age six, the death of his father at age seven, and always desperate for money, left a deep psychological imprint on Joe Belmont. Despite it, he mowed lawns, pumped gas, waited tables, and worked hard in school. When he turned eighteen, he borrowed money, lived low, and worked himself through college and into medical school. Finally, the end was in sight. Then without warning, his saintly mother was murdered in her modest home, and his uncle, his only living relative, died in a suspicious car accident. Now, for no apparent reason, whoever killed them are trying to kill him. From multiple hiding places in the Philadelphia neighborhood where he grew up, to the Jersey Shore where he was placed at bedrest for twelve nightmarish months, to the financial district of Zurich, Switzerland, Belmont desperately tries to unlock the secrets that have marked him for death. Only now is he realizing that his only hope of survival lies in the one place he has always avoided, the darkest corner of his own mind.