Wendell Whitney Thorne

The Hot Dog King Wendell Whitney Thorne

Linwood Baker is dead. The 69-year-old retiree was cut down by a hit-and-run driver while manning his hot dog cart on a busy Orlando byway. An accident is what witnesses think. But no. Police find that the offending vehicle, a vintage Buick Electra, is owned by Baker's employer, HDK, Inc., and rarely leaves the parking lot of the retirement village which is home to Connie Mae Segal, mother of Barry Segal. As in the Barry Segal. CEO of HDK, Inc. Owner of some 87 hot dog carts in the greater Orlando, Florida area; the undisputed Hot Dog King of central Florida. Barry Segal, the Hot Dog King, learned that one of his operators, Linwood Baker, was planning to start his own hot dog cart business, muscle in on Barry's turf, and even take some of Barry's operators along with him. Upon this knowledge, Barry convinced his mother-suffering from the onset of Alzheimer's disease-to drive Mr. Baker out of business. Permanently. That's what the indictment says, anyway. Enter Fred Tollberg, the nearly-middle-aged, smooth-talking defense lawyer. He knows how to properly distribute a client's fee dollars in order to garner favorable outcomes for those he represents. He's also a fairly capable lawyer, but learned some time ago that good lawyering will only take one so far. To complicate matters, there is a tiny innocent place deep inside him that always knows the truth. If that's not enough, Hanna, Fred's ex, still has his heart. Jimmy Yarbrough is Barry's protégé, his second in command. The one-armed Jimmy knows certain truths about people and business that keep HDK, Inc. atop the roadside culinary industry. Barry is the King; Jimmy is the Dark Prince. Just how far will the two of them go to protect their empire? The victim's wife, a one-armed protégé, a stripper who works one of Barry's carts in the daytime, a Scottish video forensics expert, a crooked judge, a bungling prosecutor and a sexy client with a strong desire to 'thank' Fred for his successful representation round out the characters in this tale of vengeance and broken hearts-and one man's search for truth.