The dramatic new novel in the Philadelphia police saga by #1 New York Timesโbestselling author W. E. B. Griffin.
In Philadelphiaโsuffering among the countryโs highest murder ratesโthe tension between the Philadelphia Police Department and its Citizens Oversight Committee has long been reaching a boiling point. That turmoil turns from bad to worse shortly after the committee begins targeting police shootingsโespecially those of twenty-seven-year-old Homicide Sergeant Matt Payne, the โWyatt Earp of the Main Lineโโand then the committeeโs combative leader is found shot dead point-blank on the front porch of his run-down Philly row house.
As chanting protesters fill the streets, the city threatens to erupt. Payne, among many others accused of being complicit in the leaderโs death, becomes quietly furious. He suspects thereโs something deeper behind it all, but what? Ordered to stay out of the line of fire, he struggles ahead to do what he does bestโ his job. Heโs been investigating the murder of a young family. A reporter, working on an illicit drug series for Pulitzer Prizeโwinning journalist Mickey OโHara, has been killed with his wife and child, a note stapled to his chest warning that the drug stories are to stop. Period. While Payne knows that he, like his pal OโHara, cannot back down, he also knows that they damn sure could be among the next to die. . . .
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