Writing as Harry Brandt, Richard Price has adopted a transparent pseudonym for this heart-stopping thriller about a rogue NYPD detective dragged back into the past by a murder in the present
Every cop has a personal ‘White’: a criminal who got away with murder – or worse – and was able to slip back into life, leaving the victim’s family still seeking justice, the cop plagued by guilt.

Back in the 1990s, Billy Graves was one of The Wild Geese: a tight-knit crew of young mavericks, fresh to police work and hungry for justice, looking out for each other and their ‘family’ of neighbourhood locals. But then Billy made headlines by accidentally shooting a ten-year-old boy in a tragic accident while stopping an angel-dusted berserker in the street. Branded a cowboy, he spent years in one dead-end posting after another. Now he has settled into his role as sergeant in the Night Watch, content simply to do his job and go home to his family.

But when he is called to the 4.00 a.m. stabbing of a man in Penn Station, Billy discovers the victim is the ‘White’ of one of his old crew. As the past comes crashing into the present, old wounds are reopened and Billy learns that he is very close to someone else’s ‘White’. Suddenly the bad old days are back with a vengeance.

Richard Price, writing for the first time under the penname of Harry Brandt, is one of America’s most gifted novelists. He has always written brilliantly about cops, criminals and New York City, and this electrifying novel – fast-moving and stripped to the bone – marks a heart-racing new departure.