New York after the war is a city where secrets sink deep and
some of them refuse to stay buried.
Marlowe Black is a World War II veteran with police
experience and a reputation for taking cases the cops prefer to ignore. When a
wealthy and eccentric writer hires him to investigate strange noises coming
from a car abandoned in a Brooklyn creek, Marlowe expects a quick job that
might keep the rent paid. Instead, he discovers a red Cadillac half buried in
the mud with two bodies locked inside its trunk.
The victims are naked, unidentified, and clearly murdered.
What looks like a simple mob execution soon becomes
something far more complicated. The dead woman may be the missing wife of Vito
Angelo, an ambitious mob lieutenant climbing the ladder of organized crime. If
that connection proves true, Marlowe's investigation could place him squarely
in the middle of a dangerous war between powerful men.
The trail leads deeper into Brooklyn's underworld, where mob
enforcers, crooked politicians, and ambitious gangsters all have something to
lose if the truth comes out. As Marlowe pushes forward, he learns that the
woman's father is Frank DeMatto, a powerful political figure whose influence
reaches far beyond the streets of New York. The deeper Marlowe digs, the more
he realizes the case is tangled in corruption, betrayal, and secrets that
powerful people are determined to keep buried.
With help from a few friends in the police department and
little regard for his own safety, Marlowe keeps pulling at the loose threads of
the mystery. Soon gunmen begin appearing at his door, mobsters start watching
his every move, and the investigation threatens to drag innocent people into
the violence surrounding the case.
In a city where loyalty is rare and justice is often decided
in back rooms and dark alleys, Marlowe Black must decide how far he is willing
to go to uncover the truth.
Because sometimes solving a murder means confronting the men
who ordered it.
And sometimes the only justice left is the kind
delivered outside the law.
