It's dark underground. How would you catch a serial killer with only your badge, your wits, and a shaky sense of right and wrong? It's 1987, and a world before cellphones and DNA. Former Army Ranger and Vietnam vet, divorced Danny Mangan is a Chicago cop weary from fifteen years on the force. But he can't rest now he's trailing a serial killer with a penchant for attacking African-American prostitutes - a grim world of deception where everyone has a public price and a private fix....


What follows when a member of Danny's own family is hunted by the killer is excruciating. So will Danny's drug-loving daughter Kelly and bisexual partner Lila help or complicate his work? The Underground Detective is a modern fable, absorbing, imaginative and terrifying. Here is polished crime writing, the dark sheen after the rains have cleaned the streets of Chicago. A treat of human foibles, weaknesses, attractions and heartbreak, where only love and family are the saving grace....



Author Bio



Thomas Laird has published four novels: Cutter (2001), Season of the Assassin (2003), Black Dog (2004) and Voices of the Dead (2006). The first three books were co-published in London and New York by Constable & Robinson and by Carroll & Graf (Perseus). The fourth novel was published in the Czech Republic by Domino Publishers.



The books received favorable reviews from the Washington Post, the Chicago Sun-Times, Publisher's Weekly, Library Journal, The Independent on Sunday (UK) and Crime Time (UK).



Thomas Laird lives in Peoria, Illinois.