Thumbs Down - Paperback

The telephone's insistent ringing at three in the morning snatched Sam Workman from dreamless sleep. "Hello," he mumbled. "This is a warning," said a digitally altered voice. "Leave Betterton now! If you don't, you won't live long enough to regret it." "Who is this?" Sam angrily demanded to a dead line. "Unknown name, unknown number," blinked the call identifier. "Coward!" Workman growled and slammed down the receiver. The call was the first episode in a conspiracy to force Sam and his business, B&W Concrete, out of Betterton or destroy them. Followed were attempts to oust B&W from two construction projects, a hospital addition and an engine plant, totaling $400 million in construction costs to yield B&W $10 million profits. Sam retains attorney Penn Roman to stem the tide of disastrous actions drowning B&W in a flood of claims of incompetency and fraud and more threats and violence against Sam, Penn, and Penn's family. When a testing lab employee working on the projects disappears, and the newspaper prints libelous articles condemning B&W, Penn and Sam find themselves entangled in a web of greed, deceit, violence, and murder. Courageously, they face the schemers in an explosive and telling trial to the finish.