On an icy February night, the body of Steven Pleasant, a prominent Portland, Maine physician, grows cold in his parked Mercedes. All signs point to a john killed by a disgruntled hooker: his pants are unzipped, wallet is gone, and the good doctor has a reputation for entertaining girls in his car.
But the deeper Detective Sergeant Joe Burgess digs, the muddier the case becomes. While juggling hookers, wives, ex-wives, fathers, stepfathers, dealers and doctors, a nurse on Pleasant's staff suggests another angle-disgruntled patients.
Now, ensconced in the darkness of a sleeping...

Portland, Maine, homicide detective Joe Burgess needs a vacation. But there's a dead child in Knowlton Park.
Rolling up on the scene with a canoe on the roof and fishing poles flapping, Burgess finds little Timmy Watts, viciously stabbed, and carefully wrapped in a new blue blanket.
Timmy's parents are life-long crooks, his brothers deal drugs and his sister turns tricks. The only one who seems to care is Timmy's hearing-impaired sister, Iris. But she's keeping her secrets.
Then Iris disappears, and Burgess is battling against time to keep more children from dying.
REVIEWS:...

Burgess's hopes for a calm Columbus Day picnic slam up against reality when two boys spot a dead body in the water.
It's Reggie the Can Man-a damaged, alcoholic veteran who Burgess has tried to patch back together since they returned from Vietnam. Now, Reggie's fight for redemption is over.
Then the ME questions Reggie's accidental drowning, giving Burgess one last chance.
As Burgess dives deep, he uncovers Reggie's ex-wife, his scofflaw son, industrial toxins, corrupt businessmen, and that Reggie isn't the only one in need of redemption.
REVIEWS:
"Authentic police...