Alex Boswell is a veteran NYPD homicide detective, introspective, world-weary and cynical. He's been on the job too long, but it's the center of his life, and the last thing he wants to do is quit. But strange things are happening that make him question his sanity. They play out against a tangle of cases: the death of an autistic boy in a care home, a deadly armed robbery in Harlem, and an assistant district attorney found dead in his Upper West Side apartment. Alex feels like he's losing his grip on reality in a police department culture prizing toughness, where a breakdown could end his career. Can he do his job while hiding his deteriorating mental condition from his colleagues and from himself, or will it overtake him in the end? This is a sweeping story about death investigation, memory, mental illness, and accepting vulnerability, even when you're a hardboiled New York police detective.