Cookie O'Shaughnessy is every man's dream; fashion-model looks, intelligent, entertaining personality and very, very appealing... if you don't know she's a brash undercover vice cop armed with a quick temper and a gun.Ignoring departmental protocols, O'Shaughnessy plunges ahead without back-up on an undercover assignment against the Russian mob and endures a sexual assault in order to save herself and another victim. Guilty of violating departmental rules, Cookie is cast aside by the police, leaving her lost in an emotional and mental limbo. Part of her craves revenge, part of her craves vindication and a third more vital part of her psyche wonders if she will ever again be able to trust a man. Despite lengthy counseling, Cookie continues to wrestle with both her identity and her self-worth, trying to find herself as well as her place in the world. With no direction to go, the former vice cop reluctantly agrees to become a private detective and accepts an attempted blackmail case for want of anything better to do.Private Eye O'Shaughnessy plunges into the blackmail investigation with her usual brashness. She travels to Washington, DC, rediscovers an old friend, makes new friends and finds a new love interest. Unfortunately the new love interest is also on her list of blackmail suspects, the old friend has connections to the Russian mob and one of the new friends is a cop who would very much like to bust the Russians. Who can she trust? And how much can she trust them?If her life wasn't already complicated enough, Cookie bumps into the Russian mobsters who assaulted her. Whether the meeting was by accident or on purpose, the private eye suddenly finds herself doubting everyone including herself. Pushing aside the nightmares that still haunt her, O'Shaughnessy begins planning her revenge against the Russians while still pursuing the blackmailer. But before she can either exact retribution or collar the blackmailer, an attempt is made on her life. Was it the blackmailer? The Russians? Or someone else?With all these twisted relationships swirling about her and with the Russians lying in wait, Cookie slowly comes to the realization the blackmail case isn't what it was cracked up to be and someone is manipulating her behind the scenes. But who? And for what purpose?Can the former vice cop and emotionally struggling private detective pull herself together long enough to solve the blackmail case, punish the Russians and deal with the new love interest that might help her reclaim her purpose in life? Or is she doomed to be lost? Silently. Forever. I grew up reading comic books in my uncle's toy and hobby store. I didn't know how to read at first so I contented myself staring at the drawings while trying to figure out what the words meant. I believe the first word I learned was "Pow!". "The" wasn't far behind. Then my uncle started sending me home with a comic, often, purportedly so my parents could read them to me, but also because he grew tired of me being in the way of paying customers.I learned two things from that experience; how to manipulate my uncle, which came in handy as I grew older, and how to read at an early age, which served me well my entire life.Reading opened up a whole new world for me; a world of knowledge, entertainment and imagination, and that world lay just across the alley from me at the Dyckman Free Library. By the time I reached the second grade my family had named me "Professor". By the eighth grade I'd demonstrated to Mrs. Dombrowski, the librarian, that had I not only graduated from the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew section, I was well on my way through the adult fiction section and could pass a comprehension quiz on any book I'd already managed to smuggle out of the adult section when she hadn't been looking.In high school my standard answer to a question from any teacher wondering how I happened to know something esoteric or arcane was "I read that somewhere." Which also brought a standard groan from my class
