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.