Lang Reilly is a former agent with the CIA, now a lawyer.
As the series opens, he is a practicing defense attorney specializing in white collar crime and making a very, very good living at it. But life throws him a curve ball and he finds his old skills and contacts are needed more than ever to see justice done and to stay alive doing it.
Reilly was for several years a member of the U.S. Navy Seals, seeing a considerable amount of action around the world, before an offer from the CIA came. Though he joked in one passage that the greatest danger he faced in the "Third Directorate: Intelligence" was poisoning from the Agency's cafeteria, the evidence is much to the contrary. Reilly was as good at his clandestine job as he would later be as a lawyer and did it for a few years before falling in love and quitting.
After Law school, he and his wife settled down to what they hoped would be a long life together but disease took his lady after too few years together. Though it has been several years since her passing, the ache is still obvious. To help cope, he threw himself into his work even harder.
When the opening events of the series take place and Reilly, who is now in his late 30s or early 40s, finds himself tracking killers with his own plans for revenge, he needs the help of an old lover from the early days of his career. Gurt Fuchs is a former German agent now working for the Agency and still very good at her work and she is there for an old friend. Together they make a good team.