In a small apartment in Boston, 16-year-old Daniel Fitzsimmons is listening to his landlord describe a seemingly insane theory about invisible pulses of light and energy that can be harnessed by the human mind. He longs to laugh with his brother Harry about it, but Harry doesn’t know he’s there. None of that matters, though, because the next night Harry, a Harvard football star, is murdered in an alley. Detectives “Bark” Jones and Tommy Dillon are assigned to the case. The veteran partners thought they’d seen it all, but they are stunned when Daniel wanders into the crime scene. Even stranger, Daniel claims to have known the details of his brother’s murder before it ever happened.

Kevin Pearce was only 15 when he and his buddy, Bobby Scales, committed heinous violence for what they thought were the best of reasons. Kevin didn’t want a pass, but he was getting it anyway. Bobby would stay and face the music; Kevin’s future would remain bright as ever. At least that was the way things were supposed to work. Twenty-six years later, Kevin is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist for the Boston Globe. When he learns that Bobby is the prime suspect in a string of local murders, he heads home to protect his friend and the secret they share. To report this story to the end and protect those he loves, he must face not only an elusive, slippery killer, but his own corrupted conscience.

It’s been two years since disgraced Illinois governor Ray Perry disappeared from a federal courthouse in Chicago moments after being sentenced to 37 years in prison on corruption charges. P.I. Michael Kelly gets an anonymous email offering to pay him nearly a quarter of a million dollars if he will find Perry. Kelly’s investigation begins with the woman Perry left behind --- his wife, Marie. Ostracized by her former friends and hounded by the feds, Marie tells Kelly she has no idea where her husband is. Like everyone else, Kelly doesn’t believe her.

The first day of class for graduate students Ian Joyce and Sarah Gold starts like any other --- until a fellow student, Jake Havens, pulls a wrinkled envelope from his backpack. Inside is a bloodstained scrap of shirt from a boy murdered 14 years ago and an anonymous note taking credit for the killing. The only problem is that the alleged murderer is already dead. Suddenly, the class has a new assignment: find the real killer.

Michael Kelly is back and racing to save Chicago from a deadly new foe: a biological weapon unleashed in the city’s subway system.