As Algy Temple, the deft pool player, sleuth and Ivy League university lawyer, investigates the suspicious death of a retired professor, it coincides  with his involvement in a high stakes pool tournament in Providence, where old world shadows hang heavily in the air. Unexpectedly, he finds himself on a path that leads him to  Rome  and the Boot of Italy where he confronts  the dreaded ‘Ndrangheta crime family and discovers a past haunted by  vendetta and  conspiracy.  Mobsters and shylocks, a Ponzi scheme, an outraged Italo-American community locked in a culture war with the University, a pool hustler’s last gambit for recognition, and his fiancé’s, the sassy and beautiful Nadie Winokur, focus on their upcoming  wedding add complexity to the suspenseful tension.  Algy picks  his way through dark alleys of moral corruption and  the murky world of big time pool where the  match  becomes a wager of life and death.