Three years ago, a child's death sent one innocent man to prison and blew open a vortex of corruption at the heart of Manhattan's lucrative construction industry. Joe Cole was that innocent man. A former Buildings Department inspector, the ex-con now lives a broken life, cut off from his wife and daughter, and from the city he loves. But a woman's murder and the death of a young man rip open old wounds--plunging Joe and his former partner, a beautiful, hard-charging investigator, into the darkest corners of the city and into a desperate race to expose the secrets that help the powerful hide their crimes.

S. J. Rozan, a native New Yorker, is the author of nine novels. She has won the Edgar, Nero, Macavity, Shamus and Anthony Awards for Best Novel and the Edgar Award for Best Short Story. Her previous novels Absent Friends, A Bitter Feast, Reflecting the Sky, Concourse, Stone Quarry, and No Colder Place are all available from Sound Library®.