Neal Carey mysteries

"Neal Carey is not your usual private eye. A graduate student at Columbia University, he grew up on the streets of New York, usually on the wrong side of the law. Then he met a PI who introduced him to the Bank, an exclusive institution with a sideline in keeping its wealthy clients happy and out of trouble. They pay Neal's college tuition, and Neal gets an education that can't be found in any textbook, from learning how to trail a suspect to mastering...

"Neal Carey's three-year confinement in a Chinese monastery is finally over, but his troubles are just beginning. The elusive financial benefactors who have bought his freedom expect a return on their investment. They want him to find Cody McCall, a two-year-old boy recently abducted by his father in a bitter Hollywood custody battle, a task that will propel Neal from the glittering Hollywood hills to the remote wilds of Nevada. To find Cody, Neal...

A call from "Dad," a.k.a. Joe Graham, Neal Carey's erstwhile father figure and boss, interrupts Neal's plans for his master's degree and marriage with a job to protect a witness from a pair of ruthless con artists. Neal has to drive down to Las Vegas to pick up a confused old man and take him home to Palm Springs.