When a successful web design specialist disappears from her Laguna Niguel home, her friend Catalina suspects the last man she was seen with. Newport Beach Lieutenant Mariah O'Keefe investigates, uncovering a high-stakes financial shell game that reaches far beyond one missing person.

Eduardo, a desperate financier drowning in debt and tied to drug cartels, has been murdering business partners to illegally profit from foreclosure — making him very dangerous, and very difficult to catch.

But Eduardo isn't the only force at work.

In Danawoods park, a community of reincarnated dogs — a former New York Times editor, a Prime Minister's wife, a Princeton professor — monitors the humans around them, following their motto: "No matter the danger, no matter the loss, protect your humans whatever the cost."

Hidden in the canyon, a coyote pack tasked by angels to "remove evil from the world" joins the dogs. Together, they unravel the killer's conspiracy. The fate of the community — and possibly the nation — may rest in the paws of those least suspected.

The Outward Man is a mystery that blends financial thriller, supernatural elements, and the signature AG Chacon conviction that dogs see more than we think they do.