The Stakes Have Never Been Higher for this Homicide Cop

Publishers Weekly calls J. Mark Bertrand''s writing "gritty and chilling." He returns once more to the streets of Houston for another twisting mystery featuring Detective Roland March. This time, a new case is launched by the discovery of a headless corpse...only the investigation quickly becomes complicated when a blood sample analysis brings a phone call from the FBI.

The body was an undercover agent working to bring down Mexican cartels. The feds want the case closed rather than risk exposing other agents in the field, but March can''t abide letting a murder go unsolved. And he doesn''t have to dig long to figure out something isn''t right. Someone is covering something up, and it seems that everyone has something to hide. Maybe even March, as the case soon intersects, unexpectedly, with the murder that led him to become a homicide cop, all those years ago.

A grisly homicide. An international threat.
The stakes have never been higher for
Detective Roland March.

The victim''s head is missing, but what intrigues Detective Roland March is the hand. The pointing finger must be a clue--but to what? According to the FBI, the dead man was an undercover asset tracking the flow of illegal arms to the Mexican cartels. To protect the operation, they want March to play along with the cover story. With a little digging, though, he discovers the Feds are lying. And they''re not the only ones.
In an upside-down world of paranoia and conspiracy, March finds himself dogged by injury and haunted by a tragic failure. Forced to take justice into his own hands, his twisting investigation leads him into the very heart of darkness, leaving March with nothing to lose--and nothing to hide.

"Plot-driven and suspenseful, with well-developed characters, this should appeal to readers of Terri Blackstock." -- Library Journal

J. Mark Bertrand is the author of the crime novels Back on Murder and Pattern of Wounds, the first two novels in a series featuring Houston homicide detective Roland March. He earned his MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Houston and now lives in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, with his wife. Visit his website at www.jmarkbertrand.com.