Path to Atonement

Path to Atonement, the third novel in Prosecutor Nick Drummond's legal-thriller trilogy begins with a Nepalese girl escaping from a brothel in Tijuana. That leads to Drummond's task force investigating and prosecuting an international sex and forced-labor trafficking ring which is based in San Diego. Innocent teenage girls from India and Nepal are forced into prostitution by ruthless overseers. Path to Atonement continues the author's behind-the-scenes portrayal, with wit and insight, of the criminal justice system and how a task force truly operates. Path to Atonement's action takes the reader from Kathmandu, Kashmir, Delhi, Vietnam, and Tanzania's Serengeti and Mt. Kilimanjaro to Yellowstone National Park, San Diego, and Tijuana. Jim Dutton was a career prosecutor in California. National television shows, 48 Hours, Cold Case, and Forensic Files have featured his murder trials. He prosecuted numerous child molestation and rape cases. He was the Chief of the California Attorney General's Money Laundering Program for twenty years and testified before the U.S. Congress several times on that subject. Jim was the representative for human trafficking for the San Diego-based California Attorney General's Office and incorporated a human trafficking analysis in his Money Laundering Manual for law enforcement. Jim is an avid outdoorsman, photographer, and traveler. He has written numerous travel and legal articles over the years. He lives with his wife, two sons, and their incorrigible, skunk-seeking dog, Wylie Coyote, in Del Mar, California. Nick Drummond struggles with the consequences of his past acts and seeks relief at a Buddhist monastery in Ladakh, India, before making the most difficult decision of his life.