Ellis Portal, once an esteemed judge, now lives as a vagrant in a wilderness preserve running through the heart of Toronto. One day, while working in his garden, he unearths a human hand -- with a ring on it that Ellis recognizes. And as Ellis begins a search for the victim, he finds himself drawn back into the world that has cast him out...

Amazon.com Review
Ellis Portal, hero of Rosemary Aubert's intelligent mystery Free Reign, is not your average P.I. Once a lawyer and a judge, Portal fell from grace, landing first in a mental ward and then in jail before ending up on the streets. Still, life as a bum hasn't dulled Portal's investigative wits, and when he discovers a severed hand wearing a ring identical to one he and four other friends also own, he finds himself back in the fray and on the trail of a killer.