Florida Writers’ Association Royal Palm Literary Award Semi-Finalist.
Exiled from the police department, Sam Laska returns to Chicago to keep a promise he never should have made.
Sixteen years ago, homicide detective Sam Laska made a promise to the family of a murdered man: he would bring the killer to justice. The murder on the Green Line, one of Chicago’s iconic elevated commuter trains, looked like nothing more than an armed robbery gone bad. But the investigation stalled, the murder was never solved, and Laska’s promise was never kept. Relegated to a dusty shelf in storage, the file became a cold case forgotten by all except the dead man’s daughter.
Now, years later, a death threat forces Laska to return to Chicago and the dormant investigation. Laska soon learns a former partner who worked the case was killed in a suspicious accident. As he works to prove the accident was murder, an attempt is made on Laska’s life. Narrowly escaping death, he continues to probe the two cases while fighting through a lack of evidence and dodging the police and an unknown assassin.
Laska soon discovers a common thread weaving through both deaths. The two cases wind around each other like strands of barbed wire. But will he survive long enough to untangle them?