Cause and Effect — Ralph M. McInerny

IT'S FUNNY WHAT A MAN DOES WHEN HE'S TOLD HE'S DYING...

Andrew Broom has everything: a thriving law practice in Wyler, Indiana, a beautiful and sophisticated wife and more money than he thought he had a right to. He's also in the middle of one of his toughest cases. His client was found guilty of conspiring with her lover to kill her husband. Only it was the lover who bought the farm--their hired killer shot the wrong man. The case is simply a three-ring circus.

But it also gives Broom an idea. Find the killer and offer him another job. Andrew Broom knows he's slowly dying and he's looking for a quick way out.

The irony of the whole sordid story is that it's what Andrew Broom doesn't know that might kill him.