Marcus Sakey is an award-winning copywriter and the author of The Blade Itself. While writing this he shadowed homicide detectives, toured the morgue, and learned to pick a deadbolt in sixty seconds. Born in Flint, Michigan, he now lives in Chicago with his wife.

Jason Palmer loved being a soldier. But after returning from Iraq with an "other than honourable" discharge, he's finding rebuilding his life the toughest battle yet.

Elena Cruz is a talented cop, the first woman to make Chicago's prestigious Gang Intelligence Unit. She's ready for anything the job can throw at her.

Until Jason's brother, a prominent communityt activist, is murdered in front of his own son.

Now, stalked by brutal men with a shadowy agenda, Jason and Elena must unravel a conspiracy stretching from the darkest alleys of the ghetto to the manicured lawns of the city's power brokers. In a world where corruption and violence are simply the cost of doing business, two damaged people are all that stand between an innocent child - and the killers who will stop at nothing to find him.