Carter Ross Mystery

As long as Newark Eagle-Examiner reporter Carter Ross turns in his stories on deadline, no one bats an eye if he doesn't wander into the newsroom until 10 or 11 in the morning. So it's an unpleasant surprise when he's awakened at 8:38 by a phone call from his boss, telling him a local policeman was killed and Carter will be covering the story, starting immediately. He's baffled when, hours later, there are still no other reporters at the widow's house. And then he gets another call from his boss: the story's off, the cop committed suicide. But when Carter's calls to the police and the morgue are repeatedly blocked, it's clear someone knows more than he's saying about the cop's death.

When he hears residents of a Newark neighborhood are getting sick, and even dying, from a strange disease, investigative reporter Carter Ross dives into the story. With even more motivation to track down the source of the disease, Carter soon hits upon a nearby construction site. But when the project's developer is found dead, and his mob ties surface, Carter knows he's looking at a story much bigger.

In a rash of carjackings, Newark becomes newsworthy when one such theft ends in the murder of a wealthy banking executive. The affable, wisecracking Ross is assigned the story. To balance his reporting, he finds a Nigerian immigrant of more modest means who was also killed during a recent carjacking. It turns out the two victims knew each other, sharing an unexplained round of golf at a country club shortly before their deaths. When his unborn child is put in harm's way, it becomes more than just a story for Carter. And he'll stop at nothing to rescue the baby - even if it costs him his own life.