Brooklyn. Early June. A man strolls into a candy store, pulls out a sawed-off shotgun, and blows away two people: owner Yetta Zimmerman and her customer, NYPD Lt. Joe Gallagher. Suddenly it is a very hot summer for Detective Lt. Tony Scanlon. For this is just the first in a series of brutal, inexplicable hits that lead Scanlon on a journey into the nightmare universe that cops and criminals cohabit . . . and deep into the private tragedies of his own life . . . then deeper still into his other life, the job, where he uncovers a frightening hidden world riddled with suspects in blue. But it all begins with the opening double murder and a moment of shock when Scanlon opens that dead lieutenant's locker . . . .