Detective Gianni Basso has excelled in the homicide division for years with an outstanding record of accomplishment in resolving his cases. After leaving the Navy as a highly respected SEAL, he earned a graduate degree in criminology, which allowed him to assimilate easily into the field of law enforcement. Being upwardly mobile, he rose quickly through the ranks to achieve his current position as head of the homicide division. With 25 years of experience on the force, he is recognized as a leader who consistently gets results. His most recent case has far-reaching implications, since it involves the death of Jennifer Ambrose, a high-profile lawyer with an Ivy League law degree. Her dead body was found abandoned beneath the Wilson Park bridge. This divorced and very successful litigator with expensive tastes was blessed with beauty, brains, and an abundance of physical attributes to go along with her pedigree education. She worked as the general counsel heading up the law department for Diego Santiago, a prominent business executive with plenty of connections at City Hall. Santiago emigrated with his parents to the USA from Colombia when he was 12 years old, and he quickly became an astute student of the street culture. Through his business acumen, he parlayed his initial successes into a highly profitable business while continually gaining substantial power and influence in the community. His friends inhabit the upper echelons of business, politics, show business, and the sports world. Complicating Santiago's life, however, have been persistent accusations linking him to the growing drug problem in the city. None of the allegations against him have been proven, much to the dismay of his detractors, but the cloud of suspicion nonetheless hovers over him within police ranks. Detective Basso's homicide partner and close friend is Julius Curto, a highly qualified veteran of the Marines who served in the international military arena as an officer on the Provost Marshall's staff. He is considered to be fair-haired within the department and on a fast track to reaching the top. Basso and Curto dig well below the surface of the victim's personal and professional life and the lives of everyone with whom she had any contact to learn heretofore unknown and astonishing details. With the mayor, the chief of police, and the media crying out for resolution, Basso and his team are under considerable pressure to find the answer to this baffling case, but numerous obstacles are put in their way to hinder progress.