In the Guise of Mercy

A decade has passed since Maggie MacGowen s last investigation in the pages of Hornsby s award-winning noir series. Gritty and streetwise, yet compassionate, these mysteries appeal to America s current fascination with realistic crime stories. Filmmaker Maggie MacGowen has taken on many tough assignments over the years. However, when she discovers a note from her newly dead husband, Detective Mike Flint, urging her her to take a fresh look at a decade-old unsolved case of a boy who went missing, she isn t sure that she s up to the challenge. But how does one say no to a dead man? Maggie seeks information from anyone who has a connection: a spoiled cop, an ex-con taxi dancer, the dead youth s gang set the hookers, the cons, the addicts, the homeless and the hopeless and the good and decent people among them who remain the foundation of a community always in transition, always under siege. The answers Maggie discovers aren t what she expects, nor is the sometimes deadly opposition from all sides. But she finds strength from her own resilience...and an acceptance of Mike s final decision.