One Promise Too Many

Roger Stark, Marshfield's newest detective, is paired with ex-NYPD detective, Ed Jones, "...fresh from a boring retirement...," to investigate the abduction of a volatile CEO's five-year-old daughter. Despite past entanglements with the CEO, Stark promises him that he'll find his little girl by the 42-hour deadline imposed by the kidnapper. However, Stark doesn't count on an elusive schizophrenic suspect or that the kidnapping is a ruse to divert attention from another far-reaching crime by a vengeful person playing by a different set of rules. Told from Stark's and the schizophrenic's point-of-view, the story explores the collision of styles between Stark and Jones as the stress of the investigation intensifies. It shows the struggles of the schizophrenic as his hold on reality slips away while trying to solve the kidnapping the police suspect him of having committed, and his uncertainty about whether or not he could have done it. "One Promise Too Many" also demonstrates the depths to which someone will go to extract revenge on people once loved, regardless of who gets hurt. "One Promise Too Many" combines strong elements of a police procedural with the soul of a literary classic that should keep readers turning pages fast enough to create a breeze.