The Tipping Point: A Wainwright Mystery by Walter Danley

The Tipping Point is a suspense novel set in 1978. Garth Wainwright is one of the ten business partners of CapVest, a successful national real estate investment firm. Wainwright is invited to join Tom Burke, one of those partners, and his wife for a skiing holiday in Aspen. His invitation came from Lacey Kinkaid, Burke’s lawyer and Wainwrights new love interest. The foursome is having a fun February vacation together—until Burke’s mysterious death pushes Wainwright’s buttons to learn the motive for his death. If Tom Burke had not died on the slopes of Aspen Mountain, Wainwright would never have risked losing everything. However, his suspicious death launched an avalanche—a tipping point—involving nine business partners and a hefty helping of greed, complicity, and murder. Wainwright returns to company headquarters in Bellevue Washington to dig for clues for a motive for murder. His questions met with suspicion and skepticism from his partners. “Just leave it alone, Garth” or “Let the cops handle this.” Wainwright questions his qualifications to continue, but his bulldog mindset drives him to keep probing for an answer. As he searches for a reason for Burke to die, he uncovers a conspiracy of fraud far bigger than anyone could have imagined. This discovery could very well destroy the company, the reputations of its partners as well as their massive personal fortunes. And then— another partner is killed. As dead bodies start piling up, Wainwright’s questioning of why they were murdered turns to who is the murderer? Are the murders connected to the fraud? Is the killer inside the company? Which of his remaining partners can he trust? The company’s survival is at stake. Other lives are at stake, especially Wainwright’s. The SEC is watching. The financial community is watching. The Tipping Point is moving toward a fall.