Gardiner and Renner

When it comes to the dead, forensic investigator Maggie Gardiner has seen it all. But detective Jack Renner knows there are always more ways to die . . . The Cleveland Herald is making headlines for all the wrong reasons. A dead body found hanging above the newspaper's assembly line is a surefire way to stop the presses. Forensic investigator Maggie Gardiner rules out suicide. The evidence tells her a murderer is implementing a staff cut-and the killing is far from over. Homicide detective Jack Renner believes in justice-by any means necessary. If killing is what it takes, he won't let the law get in his way. It's just too bad Maggie knows his secrets. As the body count rises, Maggie has no choice but to put her trust in the one person she can never trust.

Maggie Gardiner, forensics expert for the Cleveland police department, and Jack Renner, a homicide detective with a killer secret, return in bestselling author Lisa Black's new thriller as they confront the darkest threat yet to their careers-and their lives. The body of fifteen-year-old Rachael Donahue-abandoned by society, raised in foster homes, and violently unapproachable-has been discovered at the bottom of a stairwell at Firebird, the secure facility for juvenile offenders in Cleveland. For Maggie and Jack, Rachael's death comes with a disturbing twist-the girl may have been involved with a much older man. But Rachael's not the only resident at the center to come to a dead end. Firebird's ten-year-old "wild child" has overdosed in the infirmary-back-to-back tragedies that appear to be terrible accidents. As a forensic investigator, Maggie knows appearances can be deceiving. And Jack knows all about deceit. That's why they both suspect a cold-blooded murderer is carrying out a deadly agenda. As Maggie's ex-husband gets nearer to uncovering the secrets that Maggie and Jack must hide, it becomes increasingly harder for them to protect a new and vulnerable victim from a killer with unfathomable demons.

In a taut, brilliantly twisted new thriller from bestselling author Lisa Black, forensics expert Maggie Gardiner and Cleveland detective Jack Renner investigate the bizarre murder of a senator with secrets to hide… Three days before a key election, U.S. Senator Diane Cragin is electrocuted on her own doorstep-a shocking twist in an already brutal political race. Cragin's chief of staff is quick to blame rival Joey Green, a city development director who's had his hand in every till in town for over twenty years. Maggie and Jack have their own theories, especially after discovering a fortune in cash in the senator's safe. But as they follow the money through the treacherous landscape of Cleveland politics, they find many more millions in play-and more suspects. As Jack says, "Anyone can be dangerous, when they have what they think is a good reason." He should know. Now a Herald reporter is perilously close to discovering the truth about Jack's penchant for acting as both detective and executioner. With each passing hour, the stresses of the impending election expose new fractures and corruption at the city's highest levels. And as one murder leads to another, and another, Maggie and Jack's only hope of stopping a killer is an alliance that's growing ever more fragile.

In this mesmerizing new novel from bestselling author Lisa Black, the discovery of a young man's corpse leads forensics expert Maggie Gardiner and Cleveland detective Jack Renner into a dark and dangerous web of lies.. Life and death have brought Maggie Gardiner full circle, back to the Erie Street Cemetery where she first entered Jack Renner's orbit. Eight months ago, she learned what Jack would do in the name of justice. More unsettling still, she discovered how far she would go to cover his tracks. Now a young man sprawls atop a snowy grave, his heart shredded by a single wound. A key card in the victim's wallet leads to the local university's student housing-and to a grieving girlfriend with an unsettling agenda. Maggie's struggle to appease her conscience is complicated by her ex-husband, Rick, who's convinced that Jack is connected to a series of vigilante killings. Also a homicide detective, Rick investigates what seems like a routine overdose on Cleveland's West Side; but here, too, the appearance belies a deeper truth. Rick's case and Jack's merge onto the trail of a shadowy, pill-pushing physician who is everywhere and nowhere at once, while Maggie and Jack uncover a massive financial shakedown hiding in plain sight. And when Rick's bloody fingerprint is found at another murder scene, Maggie's world comes undone in a violent, irreversible torrent of events . . .