After a long break, this is the new title in the Badge of Honor Series. Homicide Sergeant Matthew Payne is used to murder, but lately there's been an awful lot of it in Philadelphia. A gangland shooting in a popular tourist location has left six dead, most of them innocent bystanders, and days later the body of a headless Latina turns up in the Schuykill River. Everybody assumes they're not related, but Payne can't shake the hunch that there's something more to it and that hunch leads him far from the City of Brotherly Love to the Texas-Mexico border. There he finds a world where the lines of law and order are murkier than he ever imagined possible. Filled with authentic color and detail, this is a riveting novel of the men and women who put their lives on the line, from the cop on the beat to the commissioner himself. It's a story of fears, dangers, courage, loyalty, and genuine heroism: story-telling at its best.