Trigger City

Fact: The police have investigated.

Fact: The case is closed.

But facts are not truth. And the truth was supposed to stay buried with the dead. . . .

From acclaimed author Sean Chercover comes the relentlessly gripping follow-up to his award-winning debut novel, Big City, Bad Blood

Trigger City

Still suffering the physical and emotional consequences of going up against the Chicago Outfit, PI Ray Dudgeon needs an easy gig. A routine investigation of an open-and-shut case sounds perfect. The job is a loser, but the pay is good, and maybe Ray will bring some peace to a grieving father who yearns to learn the truth about the daughter he never really knew.

But what begins as routine soon spirals out of control. The victim was not simply a quiet, shy, unassuming single woman whose luck ran out. She lived a double life, working in the shadowy realm of covert intelligence. In a world built on secrets and lies, she fought bravely for truth--and gave her life in the fight.

Suddenly, Ray finds himself caught in a war between private contractors and the darkest sectors of our own government--a war that stretches from the closed-door hearings of Congress to the frontlines of Iraq.

Ensnared in a conspiracy of darkness that weaves its way through the very fabric of the nation, Ray must discover who's really pulling the strings before he becomes collateral damage in America's war on terror.No peril Ray Dudgeon has faced in the past could've prepared him for this. The stakes couldn't be any higher, and no enemy could be more powerful. Ray is in way over his head.

And his greatest enemy may be himself.

Former private investigator Sean Chercover is back with Trigger City after taking the world of crime fiction by storm with his debut novel, Big City, Bad Blood. Big City earned a slew of Award nominations—for the Barry and Anthony Awards, among others—and won the Shamus, Gumshoe, Crimespree, and Lovey Awards. His second gritty, suspenseful winner recalls the best of Dennis Lehane and Robert Crais and it lifts Chercovers rapidly rising star into the stratosphere. Trigger City is a Dilys Award winner, a Macavity Award nominee, and it prompted the Chicago Tribune to praise Sean Chercover as “the Ross Macdonald of his time.”

The facts:

A lonely woman was murdered by her disturbed coworker.

The police have investigated. The case is closed.

But facts are not truth.

A routine investigation of an open-and-shut case is just what PI Ray Dudgeon needs to recover from the physical and emotional consequences of confronting the Chicago Outfit—until "routine" spirals out of control. The victim was no quiet, unassuming, unlucky single woman; she lived a double life in the shadowy realm of covert intelligence . . . and she died for the truth. Suddenly, Ray's ensnared in a conspiracy of darkness that weaves its way through the very fabric of the nation, and in grave danger of becoming collateral damage in America's war on terror. And his greatest enemy may be himself.