The Darkness of Day (Paperback)

Shelby Hill, columnist for the Minneapolis Herald, travels to Los Angeles to profile porn king Richard Haybrook, who recently made a two million dollar contribution to a local battered women's shelter. A childhood acquaintance of Shelby's, Haybrook-a notorious man in a notorious industry-has big plans for expanding his porn empire into every home in America, and he's halfway there.

Shelby's assignment is an uphill battle all the way. Like most newspapers, the Herald is losing money, and his editor wants to ratchet up the titillation factor on his columns while Haybrook wants Shelby to massage his legacy. Shelby increasingly finds himself torn between protecting his job and assuaging his subject's massive ego, all the while sinking deeper into the bizarre and seamy world of the Los Angeles porn industry.

While on assignment examining the seedy side of life, Shelby discovers that things are not as dark as they seem; they are even darker. His plans don't include any of the unintended consequences of behaviors, lifestyles, and pathologies exploding around him-showering him with the shrapnel of shattered ambitions and broken lives.