This is a New York mystery from a talented new writer...On a cold winter's morning in New York, NYPD detective Harry Corbin and his partner Adele Bentibi arrive at the scene of a shooting: exdetective David Lodge has been shot dead the morning after he was released from a seven-year sentence for killing a pimp. It looks like a cut-and-dried case: a revenge killing by the dead pimp's brother and his gang. However, as Corbin and Bentibi start digging, they come up against the impenetrable Blue Wall of Silence (the cop version of the Mafia's omerta) and the NYPD bosses seem particularly keen for this case to be laid to rest as quickly - and cleanly - as possible. Corbin is hoping for promotion, so at first he's happy to accept the facts as he's given them, but the overzealous Bentibi is not so easily persuaded. When they start uncovering a murky world of bent cops and cover-ups, they put both their careers - and their lives - in serious danger.