Former Pittsburgh police detective Karol Novak came out of retirement to lead his borough’s scandal-ridden police department. Having instituted sweeping reforms, Novak is ready to walk away. He hates small-town politics and wants to resume his search for the predator priest who preyed on him and his closest friend years before. A dying man’s wish derails his plan, drawing him into the unsolved murder of a young woman two decades earlier. As the investigation unfolds, Novak and his team discover a similar unsolved murder. Are the two deaths related? Are they the work of a serial killer? While they work to answer these questions, Novak must also locate a three-year-old child who has disappeared without a trace.

A police procedural set in the Pittsburgh area.

This is the second Chief Novak novel by the author of Novak’s Mission, praised by Reedsy Discovery as an entertaining and intriguing police mystery that will draw readers along a misty trail that reveals a hidden crime.