The martial art known as Aikido just isn't as popular as it once was. Parker is a great teacher, but his school has fallen on hard times and he needs a job to keep it going. He hates it, but he goes back to being a Private Investigator for Fat Albert Diamond, the owner of Black Diamond Investigations. Actually, what he hates is getting shot, and it seems like every time he picks up a gun, someone is shooting at him. Hey, life isn't always a bowl of cherries. Sometimes it's the pits. THE AIKIDO-KA, the second book in The Aikido Mystery Series, starts with Derek Gunner asking Parker to find John Wall, an internationally famous assassin who only operates outside the USA. Gunny is an old friend and fellow Aikido teacher and is looking for Wall because he is the long lost son of his former Army Captain, who is dying. Parker knows of the man, and knows how to get things like this done, but isn't happy with the job. And he shouldn't be; he barely escapes the meeting with his life. Old promises can be a mile of rough road, sometimes. Parker figures his job is done, only to find that instead of going back home and teaching Aikido he now has to head to the Chicago suburbs and get John Wall out of trouble. He's in Jail for murder and the FBI is screaming for the locals to release him to their custody. The locals LEOs are telling the Feds to get in line and they have a judge who is backing their play. They have their reasons for not wanting to turn Wall over and lose him. Parker has to solve a murder, save a dog, send a crazy woman into the arms of a man who loves her, sit down with a young man and explain life's mysteries, search for clues in the hidden files of a big city newsroom, and summon up more courage than he's ever needed to make sure that justice is done. Fast Aikido moves, a terrific randori, FBI goons, cops, assassins, and of course there's a woman; this story is like a freight train on a steep downhill run. Yeah, it's a love story.