I've only read this and one other by DeMille. I think that this one is not typical of his work, in that it is primarily about family relationships and is not in the "action and adventure" genre. The story is about a New York lawyer from an old-money family who agrees to represent a powerful mafioso. This causes complications in his family life and forces him to address some long-overlooked problems with his wife and his father.

Essentially, it is a somewhat pallid retelling of Robert Penn Warren's "All the King's Men". Nevertheless, it contains some interesting psychological insights and is well written and well plotted.