Author Description

Bronx homicide detective Sid Rodrigo goes on a furlough after he and his two partners shoot and kill an unarmed rape suspect, which ignites heated protests in a neighborhood where cops are seldom seen as heroes. Feeling weary Rodrigo, who lives in the area, ops for a temp job as tour guide of the Edgar Allan Poe Cottage in Poe Park. But he soon learns that his troubles are just beginning; he discovers a dead body stuffed in the cottageas parlor chimney. The corpse is that of the cottageas previous tour guide, who disappeared a year earlier. Why is he dead? And what is he doing with a rare Spanish gold coin, which slipped out of his pockets along with a cryptogram? Who or what was Ravenhall? Soon Sid and his girlfriend, Deputy Nina Celis, follow a trail leading to a deadly drug and gold smuggling cartel with roots in Colombia.