The Private Investigator is a story about courage, persistence, and international intrigue; it's a thriller that opens in the nation's capital after the firm, Hutchison and Satterfield International Investigations (HSII) relocates to D.C. from Philadelphia. The main character, Allan J. Williams, who prefers to be called A.J., is smart, industrious, and passionate about his work. A.J. not only has to deal with his boss's quirky personality, but also has to interact with the likes of Phil Jacoby, a talented federal government contractor, who is arrogant and rash.
Raymond Lee, a wily North Korean operative who portrays himself to Jacoby as a South Korean businessman, successfully recruits Jacoby and gets the government contractor to commit espionage against America. When Jacoby realizes he is headed for trouble for passing highly sensitive government information to Lee, Jacoby attempts to cover his tracks. Jacoby seeks out and hires his former high school classmate, Jerry Satterfield, to investigate the contrived story, and to reclaim the allegedly stolen government information.
Satterfield assigns A.J. to investigate Jacoby's complaint, but A.J.'s success in sorting out the complicated case depends a great deal on his willingness to work harmoniously with Satterfield. In order to unravel the Jacoby case, A.J. travels to HSII's Hong Kong office where he first learns from a colleague that they both could be in some danger.
After he obtains leads in China's autonomous territory, A.J. jets off to Seoul, South Korea, to track down Lee and attempt to solve the case. A.J. runs afoul of the Korean authorities when he and a fellow PI from HSII's office in Seoul disobey the KNP, and surreptitiously enter Lee's office to pursue more leads. Tensions heighten when the KNP catch A.J. and his colleague illegally searching Lee's office. Complications arise after the KNP arrest Lee and Lee escapes from a KNP secret interrogation facility. A.J. and his colleague redeem themselves by orchestrating a plan to join United States Army resources with a special South Korean spy-catching unit to recapture Lee.
