Free Reign: Ellis Portal #1

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.