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The Tattoo Murder
by Akimitsu TakagiAn ingenious classic Japanese murder mystery, set in post-war Tokyo and steeped in the illicit subculture of Yakuza tattoos ‘Like voyeurs, we follow Takagi down the charred streets of bombed-out Tokyo to scenes of fastidiously executed decadence’ New York TimesCan you solve the mystery of the tattoo murder?Tokyo, 1947. At the first post-war meeting of the Edo Tattoo Society, Kinue Nomura reveals her full-body snake tattoo to rapturous applause. Days later she is gone. A dismembered corpse is discovered in the locked bathroom of her home, but her much-coveted body art is nowhere to be found.Kinue's horrified lover joins forces with the boy detective Kyosuke Kamizu to try to get to the bottom of the macabre crime, but similar deaths soon follow. Is someone being driven to murder by their lust for tattooed skin, and can they be stopped?Set in a seedy Tokyo of bomb sites, dive bars and Yakuza gangs, The Tattoo Murder is one of Japan's most ingenious and legendary whodunits.
Lady Joker: The Million Copy Bestselling 'Masterpiece of Japanese Crime Fiction'
by Kaoru Takamura*THE JAPANESE CRIME CLASSIC - ONE MILLION COPIES SOLD*'One of the great masterpieces of Japanese crime fiction and one of the must-read books of this or any year' David PeaceTokyo, 1995. Five men meet at the racetrack every Sunday to bet on horses. They have little in common except a deep disaffection with their lives, but together they represent the social struggles and griefs of post-War Japan: a poorly socialized genius stuck working as a welder; a demoted detective with a chip on his shoulder; a Zainichi Korean banker sick of being ostracized for his ethnicity; a struggling single dad of a teenage girl with Down's syndrome. The fifth man bringing them all together is an elderly drugstore owner grieving his grandson, who has died in suspicious circumstances.Intent on revenge against a society that values corporate behemoths more than human life, the five conspirators decide to carry out a heist: kidnap the CEO of Japan's largest beer conglomerate and extract blood money from the company's corrupt financiers.Inspired by the unsolved true-crime kidnapping case perpetrated by "the Monster with 21 Faces," Lady Joker has become a cultural touchstone since its 1997 publication, acknowledged as the magnum opus by one of Japan's literary masters, twice adapted for film and TV and often taught in high school and college classrooms.'A novel that portrays with devastating immensity how those on the dark fringes of society can be consumed by the darkness of their own hearts' Yoko Ogawa, author of The Memory Police'Takamura's prismatic heist novel offers a broad indictment of capitalist society' New York Times'Lady Joker is a work you get immersed in, like a sprawling 19th century novel or a TV series like The Wire' NPR
Lady Joker: Volume 2
by Kaoru Takamura'One of the great masterpieces of Japanese crime fiction' David Peace, author of Tokyo Year ZeroOne of Japan's great modern writers, this second half of Lady Joker brings Kaoru Takamura's breathtaking masterpiece to a gripping conclusion.Five men who meet at a Tokyo racetrack every week carry out a heist. They have kidnapped the CEO of Japan's largest beer company to extract blood money from the company's corrupt financiers.Known as Lady Joker, the men make their first attack on the beer company when their demands are not met. As the attacks escalate, the shady networks linking corporations to syndicates are exposed, the stakes rise, and bring into riveting focus the lives and motivations of the victims, the perpetrators, the heroes and the villains. Some will lose everything, even their lives.Inspired by the real-life Glico-Morinaga kidnapping, an unsolved case that terrorized Japan for two years, Lady Joker reimagines this watershed episode in modern Japanese history.'A novel that portrays with devastating immensity how those on the dark fringes of society can be consumed by the darkness of their own hearts' Yoko Ogawa, author of The Memory Police
Extinction
by Kazuaki TakanoHe is a new kind of human He may mean the end for the rest of us... One bright morning in Washington D.C., the US President learns of a terrifying new threat to national security. Soon afterwards, American mercenary Jonathan Yeager is asked to lead a team into the Congo to eliminate a mysterious enemy - a job which will help him pay for treatment for his dying son.But when they reach Africa, the threat turns out to be a three-year-old child named Akili: the next step in human evolution. The soldiers are under orders to kill the boy before his full potential can be realised. Yet Akili's advanced knowledge might be the only hope Yeager has to save his son's life...With time running out to choose a side, Yeager must decide whether to follow his orders or to save a creature who may not be as harmless or innocent as he appears. Because Akili is already the smartest being on the planet, with the power to either save humanity - or destroy it.[This novel was first published in 2014 as GENOCIDE OF ONE.]
Precious You
by Helen Monks TakharNear the start of Monks Takhar’s dark and disquieting debut, 41-year-old Katherine Ross, editor of Leadership, a trade magazine, learns she has a new intern: publisher Gemma Lunt’s 24-year-old niece, Lily Lunt. Lily’s youth and millennial sensibilities make the already depressed Gen Xer feel ancient and irrelevant, so she’s secretly thrilled when Lily invites her out for drinks and proclaims her admiration. Shortly thereafter, Lily begins edging out Katherine at work, but Lily’s already charmed Katherine’s assistant and her significant other, 50-something failed screenwriter Iain, and both dismiss Katherine’s burgeoning suspicions regarding Lily’s actual intentions. Consequently, by the time Katherine realizes that Lily has designs on both her job and her partner, ruin is inexorable. Monks Takhar intersperses Katherine’s bitter and broken first-person narrative, which is directed at Lily, with entries from Lily’s diary detailing her motives and machinations. Though psychotic “snowflake” Lily rings true, curmudgeonly Katherine reads a decade older than her stated age, which undercuts the plot. Still, Monks Takhar delivers an excruciatingly tense slow burn that’s rife with twists that shock and devastate.
Grandville Bete Noire (Grandville Series)
by Bryan TalbotThe third volume of the Grandville series - Anthropomorphic steampunk detective fiction from graphic novel master Bryan Talbot The Badger is back! Follow the Badger! At Toad Hall, lair of multibillionaire Baron Aristotle Krapaud, a cabal of industrialists and fat cats plot the violent overthrow of the French state. Meanwhile, the brutal murder of a famous Parisian artist is subject to the investigations of the tenacious Detective Inspector LeBrock of Scotland Yard, placing him and his faithful adjunct, Detective Sergeant Roderick Ratzi, in pursuit of the mysterious masked assassin stalking the cut-throat commercial world of the Grandville art scene. As the body count mounts and events spiral exponentially out of control, aided by his brilliant deductive abilities and innate ferocity, LeBrock battles against outrageous odds in this funny, high octane thriller, an adventure shot through with both high art and comic book references, a glorious illegitimate offspring of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Ian Fleming - with animals! 'The bastard child of Conan Doyle and Beatrix Potter, it’s a gripping feast for the eyes' Observer
Grandville Force Majeure (Grandville Series)
by Bryan TalbotIn the middle of a gang war, wanted for murder, truly alone and outside the law, Detective Inspector LeBrock is on the run from both the police and gangster assassins, the victim of a diabolical scheme to annihilate himself and everyone he holds dear, engineered by mastermind crime lord Tiberius Koenig, one of the most despicable villains in the history of detective fiction.A fiendishly ingenious story of love, tenacity, treachery and tragedy, this fifth, final and longest stand-alone volume of the Eisner and Hugo Award-nominated Grandville series by master storyteller and graphic novel pioneer Bryan Talbot is a veritable rollercoaster of a detective thriller, featuring Grandville’s trademark high-octane excitement, humour and deduction on a Holmesian scale as we finally meet LeBrock’s mentor, Stamford Hawksmoor, and discover LeBrock’s untold backstory. Fan-favourite characters Detective Sergeant Roderick Ratzi and LeBrock’s vivacious fiancée, Parisian prostitute Billie are joined by a new badger in town! Enter Tasso, an Italian badger who’s bigger, meaner and uglier than LeBrock – but is he a force for good or evil? A battle royale ensues as LeBrock fights against truly outrageous odds. How can he possibly survive?Prepare to be royally badgered!
A Good Father
by Catherine Talbot'Brilliant ... I couldn't stop reading' Jo Spain Des is a good husband, a good father - a good man.He encourages his wife's artistic endeavours, reads bedtime stories to his children every night, and holds down a well-paid, if unfulfilling, job.But appearances can be deceptive. Lately, his wife seems to be forgetting that her art is for his eyes only. And rumours at work are threatening his reputation as a devoted family man. And he can't help but feel that his kids don't seem to need him as much as they once did.Des is afraid.Afraid of the world encroaching on his home.Afraid of past mistakes catching up on him.So afraid of losing control over his family that he is contemplating the unthinkable.A Good Father is a dark and gripping psychological suspense novel that will take you into the twisted mind of a man on the edge.'Exceptional ... Deeply chilling' Jane Casey'This intricately made novel marks the debut of a writer from whom, and of whom, we shall be hearing much in coming times' John Banville 'Powerful, assured and a devastating new voice in Irish fiction ... Magnificent' Joe Duffy
Keep Her Silent: A totally gripping thriller with a twist you won't see coming (Oonagh O'Neil #2)
by Theresa TalbotOonagh O'Neil is back with another dark and chilling investigation. 'Do that which is good and no evil shall touch you.' This is the message the so-called Raphael killer leaves on each of his victims. A clue - and a reminder - that three decades later they're still at large. When investigative journalist Oonagh O'Neil is given a tip off about one of the biggest tragedies to hit the NHS, the tainted blood scandal, she can't help but spot that the two seemingly different events could be linked. People were dying at the hands of those who were meant to save them and with a scandal this huge, those responsible will stop at nothing to keep it quiet... Could Oonagh be the key to piecing together the web of lies in order to catch the killer? Authentic and gritty, Keep Her Silent is a gripping and page-turning thriller that will leave you breathless. Perfect for fans of Susie Steiner, and Karin Slaughter, Patricia Gibney. What people are saying about Theresa Talbot: 'I could hardly read fast enough!' Ourbookreviewsonline.blogspot.co.uk. 'In Oonagh O'Neil, the author has created a fascinating, flesh and blood character. Someone who pops from the page and someone, dare I say it, who would be great fun to go for a drink with' Crimesquad.com. 'Theresa Talbot does not shirk away from confronting the unsettling subject matter and [this] is a compelling story as a result' www.grabthisbook.net. 'A good mystery with many unexpected twists... It keeps you turning pages the whole time' Cynthia Moskal, NetGalley. 'Too often I've read "thrillers" that didn't really thrill. This book has it all, plenty of story line and plenty of detail' Margaret Leonard, NetGalley. 'A must-read for anyone who loves detective crime thrillers based loosely on true events' Linda Tilling, NetGalley. 'I really loved this book! Excellent story with brilliant main characters' Stephanie Collins, NetGalley. 'A clever and well-written novel based on harrowing true experiences' Donna Bradley, NetGalley. 'A very good read and I would certainly recommend it' Mary Picken, NetGalley. 'The premise is truly horrific [...] but the plot is sensitively handled and hopeful. I will read more by this author' Emma Ounsworth, NetGalley.
The Lost Children: A gripping crime thriller that will have you hooked! (Oonagh O'Neil #1)
by Theresa TalbotFirst in a gripping new thriller series featuring investigative journalist Oonagh O'Neil. Perfect for fans of Susie Steiner, Patricia Gibney and Broadchurch. Investigative journalist Oonagh O'Neil's instincts tell her when a story is worth pursuing. And the death of an elderly priest on the altar of his Glasgow church, just as she is about to expose the shocking truth behind the closure of an infamous Magdalene Institution, tells her a sinister cover up is in play. DI Alec Davies is appointed to investigate the priest's death. He and Oonagh go way back. But now they're united in uncovering not only what happened to the lost babies secretly born in the Institution, but what happened to the young women that survived by vowing loyalty to one another... forever. The doors of the Magdalene laundries hid the most harrowing secrets from the world – secrets Oonagh is determined to reveal, whatever the price... 'The Lost Children is Theresa's debut crime novel. What people are saying about Theresa Talbot: 'I could hardly read fast enough!' Ourbookreviewsonline.blogspot.co.uk. 'In Oonagh O'Neil, the author has created a fascinating, flesh and blood character. Someone who pops from the page and someone, dare I say it, who would be great fun to go for a drink with' Crimesquad.com. 'Theresa Talbot does not shirk away from confronting the unsettling subject matter and [this] is a compelling story as a result' www.grabthisbook.net. 'A good mystery with many unexpected twists... It keeps you turning pages the whole time' Cynthia Moskal, NetGalley. 'Too often I've read "thrillers" that didn't really thrill. This book has it all, plenty of story line and plenty of detail' Margaret Leonard, NetGalley. 'A must-read for anyone who loves detective crime thrillers based loosely on true events' Linda Tilling, NetGalley. 'I really loved this book! Excellent story with brilliant main characters' Stephanie Collins, NetGalley. 'A clever and well-written novel based on harrowing true experiences' Donna Bradley, NetGalley. 'A very good read and I would certainly recommend it' Mary Picken, NetGalley.
The Quiet Ones (Oonagh O'Neil #3)
by Theresa TalbotIf only someone had listened... When the supposed suicide of famous Scottish football coach Harry Nugent hits the headlines, the tabloids are filled with tributes to a charitable pillar of the community that gave so much back to sport and to those less fortunate. But something isn't right. Normally celebrities are queuing up to claim to have had a very special relationship with the deceased, but investigative journalist Oonagh O'Neil is getting the distinct impression that people are trying to distance themselves from Harry. Oonagh's investigation leads her to uncover a heartbreakingly haunting cover-up that chills her to the core... and places her in mortal danger from those willing to protect their sadistic and dark secrets at any cost... Perfect for fans of Patricia Gibney, Angela Marsons and Cara Hunter.
Exile and Pilgrim: Being The Second Adventure From The Chronicles Of Jeniche Of Antar (Shadow in the Storm #2)
by Graeme K. TalboysJeniche of Antar’s old life has a nasty habit of catching up with her.
Stealing Into Winter (Shadow in the Storm #1)
by Graeme K. TalboysA breathtaking tale of adventure, survival and loyalty.
My Absolute Darling: A Novel
by Gabriel TallentA TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR • A GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE YEAR • A METRO BOOK OF THE YEAR ‘The year’s must read novel’ The Times ‘One of the most important books you’ll pick up this decade’ Harper’s Bazaar ‘An outstanding book that could be this year’s A Little Life’ Guardian
Darkness Rising: (Liebermann Papers 4) (Liebermann Papers #4)
by Frank TallisVienna 1903. Outside one of the city's most splendid baroque churches the decapitated body of a monk is found. Then, the remains of a municipal councillor are discovered in the grounds of another church - his head also ripped from his body. Both men were rabid anti-Semites and suspicions fall on Vienna's close-knit community of Hassidic Jews. In a city riven by racial tensions and extremism, the situation is potentially explosive. Detective Inspector Rheinhardt turns to his trusted friend, the young psychoanalyst Doctor Max Liebermann, for assistance. As the investigation progresses, Liebermann is drawn into the world of Jewish mysticism. Amid the atmosphere of threat and fear, Liebermann's life is in crisis. Political forces conspire against him, and the object of his romantic desires, the unreachable Miss Lydgate, is becoming an unhealthy obsession.
Deadly Communion: (Liebermann Papers 5) (Liebermann Papers #5)
by Frank TallisA sexual predator is at large on the streets of Imperial Vienna. The killer is no ordinary 'lust murderer' but an entirely new phenomenon, his deviance revealing the darker preoccupations of the age. Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt appeals to his friend, psychoanalyst Dr. Max Liebermann, for assistance. But to understand the killer's behaviour, Liebermann must make a journey into uncharted regions of the human mind, tracking a monster whose modus operandi combines both exquisite precision and savage cruelty.As the investigation continues, Liebermann and Rheinhardt find themselves drawn into the worlds of art and couture, worlds in which glamorous appearances mask the most sinister of secrets...
Death And The Maiden: (Liebermann Papers 6) (Liebermann Papers #6)
by Frank TallisVienna, 1903. An operatic diva, Ida Rosenkrantz, is found dead in her luxurious villa. It appears that she has taken an overdose of morphine, but a broken rib, discovered during autopsy, suggests other and more sinister possibilities. Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt seeks the assistance of his young friend, the psychoanalyst Dr Max Liebermann, and they begin their inquiries at Vienna's majestic opera house, where its director, Gustav Mahler, is struggling to maintain a pure artistic vision while threatened on all sides by pompous bureaucrats, vainglorious singers, and a hostile press. When the demagogue Mayor of Vienna, Karl Lueger, becomes the prime suspect - with an election only months away - the Rosenkrantz case becomes politically explosive. The trail leads Rheinhardt and Liebermann, via a social climbing professor of psychiatry, to the Hofburg palace and the mysterious Lord Marshal's office - a shadowy bureau that deals ruthlessly with enemies of the ageing Emperor Franz Josef. As the investigation proceeds, the investigators are placed in great personal danger, as corruption is exposed at the very highest levels. Meanwhile, Liebermann pursues two private obsessions: a coded message in a piece of piano music, and the alluring Englishwoman, Miss Amelia Lydgate. Romance and high drama coincide as the Habsburg Empire teeters on the edge of scandal and ruin.
Fatal Lies: (Liebermann Papers 3) (Liebermann Papers #3)
by Frank TallisVienna, 1903. In St. Florian's military school, a rambling edifice set high in the hills of the City's famous woods, a young cadet is found dead - his body lacerated with razor wounds. Once again, Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt calls on his friend - and disciple of Freud - Doctor Max Liebermann, to help him with the investigation. In the closed society of the school, power is everything - and suspicion falls on an elite group of cadets, with a penchant for sadism and dangerous games. When it is discovered that the dead boy was a frequent guest of the deputy headmaster's attractive young wife - other motives for murder suggest themselves. A tangled web of relationships is uncovered, at the heart of which are St. Florian's dark secrets, which Liebermann, using new psychoanalytic tools such as dream interpretation and the ink-blot test, begins to probe. At the same time, a shocking revelation makes it impossible for Liebermann to pursue the object of his affections, the Englishwoman Miss Lydgate, and he finds himself romantically involved with the passionate and elemental Trezska Novak - a mysterious Hungarian concert violinist, gifted with uncannily accurate intuitions. Again, all is not what it seems, and Liebermann is drawn into the perilous world of espionage - and must make choices, the outcome of which will threaten the entire stability of the Habsburg Empire. Fatal Lies - volume three of the Liebermann Papers - is about sex, the will to power, and deception.
Mortal Mischief: (Liebermann Papers 1) (Liebermann Papers #1)
by Frank TallisIt is Vienna at the beginning of the last century, and Dr Max Liebermann is a young psychoanalyst - and disciple of Freud. Psychoanalysis is only just developing and viewed with a mixture of excitement and suspicion. The world of 1900s Vienna is one where philosophy, science and art are at their most exciting and flourishing, with the coffee shops full of men and women debating the latest cultural and political theories. Liebermann's good friend Oskar Rheinhardt is a Detective Inspector - hard working, but lacking Liebermann's insights and forensic eye and so it is through Rheinhardt that Libermann is called upon to help with police investigations surrounding the death of a beautiful young medium, in what seems at first to be supernatural circumstances. While Liebermann attempts to get to the bottom of the mystery, he also must decide whether he is to follow his father's advice and marry the beautiful but reserved Clara.
Vienna Blood: (Liebermann Papers 2) (Liebermann Papers #2)
by Frank TallisIn the grip of a Siberian winter in 1902, a serial killer in Vienna embarks upon a bizarre campaign of murder. Vicious mutilation, a penchant for arcane symbols, and a seemingly random choice of victim are his most distinctive peculiarities. Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt summons a young disciple of Freud - his friend Dr. Max Liebermann - to assist him with the case. The investigation draws them into the sphere of Vienna's secret societies - a murky underworld of German literary scholars, race theorists, and scientists inspired by the new evolutionary theories coming out of England. At first, the killer's mind seems impenetrable - his behaviour and cryptic clues impervious to psychoanalytic interpretation; however, gradually, it becomes apparent that an extraordinary and shocking rationale underlies his actions ...Against this backdrop of mystery and terror, Liebermann struggles with his own demons. The treatment of a patient suffering from paranoia erotica and his own fascination with the enigmatic Englishwoman Amelia Lydgate raise doubts concerning the propriety of his imminent marriage. To resolve the dilemma, he must entertain the unthinkable - risking disgrace and accusations of cowardice.
Arizona Dreams (A Phoenix Cold Case #5)
by Jon TaltonA PHOENIX COLD CASE: David Mapstone has returned to Phoenix, Arizona, the desert city he left behind a lifetime ago. The ex-cop, ex-history professor is working the police dept's cold case desk, unearthing long-buried secrets. And he's good at it: as an ex-historian Mapstone knows the past is never past, as an ex-cop he knows he can't trust anybody... ARIZONA DREAMS: Mapstone has received a letter confessing to a forty-year-old murder and providing directions to the body, but things are never what they seem in Phoenix. Buried beneath a mound of bowling-ball-sized rocks in the desert west of Tonopah, there's a body right where the letter said it would be – but it's only weeks old, not years. Its not the only fresh body, either. As the death count rises, the clues keep pointing back to the same remote piece of desert and a real-estate development called Arizona Dreams. But Mapstone knows something sinister is fueling this increasingly dangerous case...
Cactus Heart (A Phoenix Cold Case #2)
by Jon TaltonA PHOENIX COLD CASE: David Mapstone has returned to Phoenix, Arizona, the desert city he left behind a lifetime ago. The ex-cop, ex-history professor is working the police dept's cold case desk, unearthing long-buried secrets. And he's good at it: as an ex-historian Mapstone knows the past is never past, as an ex-cop he knows he can't trust anybody... CACTUS HEART: Phoenix, a city built on the bones of its past, has just given up one of her longest-kept secrets. Walled up in a tunnel beneath an abandoned warehouse, the skeletons of two four-year-old twins are discovered, the victims in a notorious kidnapping case from the 1940s. But what starts as a tying-up-loose-ends case for David Mapstone quickly becomes something far more sinister. As Mapstone delves further into the evidence, he discovers a complex web of secrets, lies, money and power. But with a very contemporary killer on the loose, he must untangle the truth – and fast – before they strike again...
Camelback Falls (A Phoenix Cold Case #3)
by Jon TaltonA PHOENIX COLD CASE: David Mapstone has returned to Phoenix, Arizona, the desert city he left behind a lifetime ago. The ex-cop, ex-history professor is working the police dept's cold case desk, unearthing long-buried secrets. And he's good at it: as an ex-historian Mapstone knows the past is never past, as an ex-cop he knows he can't trust anybody... CAMELBACK FALLS: When his friend Peralta, newly sworn in as sheriff, is shot by a sniper, Mapstone can't keep a cool, academic distance. And he'd better not: while Peralta lies comatose in the hospital, Mapstone is appointed acting sheriff. As he struggles to make sense of this unwanted promotion, Mapstone must unravel the meaning of a cryptic note scrawled by Peralta before the shooting. The note simply reads: Camelback Falls. To decipher the message, Mapstone will have to confront his own past and the deadly consequences of a small-town shoot-out in 1979 that left he and Peralta standing over four dead bodies. For Mapstone, the past has never been so deadly.
Concrete Desert (A Phoenix Cold Case #1)
by Jon TaltonCold cases haunt the present in the desert city of Phoenix, Arizona. A PHOENIX COLD CASE: David Mapstone has returned to Phoenix, Arizona, the desert city he left behind a lifetime ago. The ex-cop, ex-history professor is working the police dept's cold case desk, unearthing long-buried secrets. And he's good at it: as an ex-historian Mapstone knows the past is never past, as an ex-cop he knows he can't trust anybody... CONCRETE DESERT: In 1959 a young woman took a late-night cab home and disappeared. Two weeks later, she was found naked, strangled in the Harquahala desert. Mapstone links her death to four other girls similarly strangled, stripped and dumped. Were these deaths the work of a serial killer?Mapstone's research is interrupted by his reacquaintance with an old flame. Back then, it ended badly, but now she wants him to find her sister who has disappeared. Initially, Mapstone has more leads on the 40-year-old murders than the missing sister. Until she's found in the desert. Stripped. And strangled.
Dry Heat (A Phoenix Cold Case #4)
by Jon TaltonA PHOENIX COLD CASE: David Mapstone has returned to Phoenix, Arizona, the desert city he left behind a lifetime ago. The ex-cop, ex-history professor is working the police dept's cold case desk, unearthing long-buried secrets. And he's good at it: as an ex-historian Mapstone knows the past is never past, as an ex-cop he knows he can't trust anybody... Half a century after the unsolved murder of an FBI agent, the victim's missing badge is found sewn inside the jacket of a dead transient. Forced into partnership with a rival cold-case expert and stonewalled by the FBI about the details of the case, David Mapstone's problems have just begun: following the bust of a major international crime syndicate, the Russian mafiya are also after his blood. Following the trail through the most forlorn parts of Phoenix and the desolate south Arizonan desert, Mapstone's got the brains, he's got the leads, but if he wants to bring justice to a fifty-year-old crime, he's going to have to stay alive long enough to do it.