Up-and-coming advertising executive Richard Park takes a business trip during the 2008-2009 economic recession. What should be a short lark in California to mix business with pleasure turns into a nightmare that upends his stable life. While in California, Richard is stalled by a routine traffic stop. But instead of being routinely processed by the courts, Richard finds his professional and personal life thrown into an unending downward spiral.

    But when Richard finds himself at the end of his rope, he will be forced to take justice into his own hands. This fast-paced novel of greed, politics, and corruption by Ralph H. Perkins, IV starts from the climactic ending and works backwards through flashbacks to reveal the sordid problems of Richard’s life. Eventually, readers begin to feel compassion and empathy for the chain of corrupt events and ruthless free market tactics that have made his life so difficult. 

As an upper-middle-class member hit hard by government regulation, Richard seems to embody the tens of thousands of professionals knocked down by the recession. Yet in this audacious thriller of underperforming capitalism and overzealous government, Richard will become the victim of a conspiracy built on robbing the livelihoods of hard-working Americans. 

Perkins has worked in the automotive business for fifteen years, overseeing fifty dealerships in six states. He was inspired to write Treatment on long business flights to and from California.