First published 2013
Philadelphia homicide detective Matt Payne receives disturbing intelligence from a law enforcement contact. Russian organized crime has partnered with Mexican drug cartels to smuggle young women into the city's sex trafficking networks. The operation has turned deadly as victims begin disappearing and dying. Payne discovers the criminal conspiracy reaches deeper than expected. Foster children are being targeted and abducted from care facilities. Police sources investigating the case turn up murdered. One witness remains alive, but she has fled into hiding. The Russians want her silenced. The cartels are hunting her. Corrupt Philadelphia politicians with ties to the operation are closing in. Payne races against multiple enemies to locate the woman before they do. Her testimony could expose the entire network, but only if she survives long enough to give it. The detective must navigate betrayal within his own department while protecting the key to bringing down an international criminal alliance operating in his city.
Genres: mystery, crime, thriller, detective
Vibes: fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: corruption, enemies-to-lovers, race-against-time
Setting: Philadelphia
Period: 21st-century
344 pages · Hardcover · G.P. Putnam's Sons
Content warnings: trafficking, violence