The Lightning Rule

Corruption, race, justice, and honor collide in this riveting thriller set against the backdrop of the infamous Newark Riots of 1967

They say lightning never strikes the same spot twice. But Detective Martin Emmett is about to prove the exception to the rule. It is the summer of 1967 and Newark, New Jersey, is in the grip of a heat wave that is bringing the city's simmering racial tension to a boiling point. Banished to desk duty, his career on the line, the young detective is offered a chance at professional redemption if he can quickly and quietly solve the murder of a black teenager whose mutilated body has been found in a subway tunnel. The investigation leads Emmett to a terrible discovery: the dead boy is just one victim in a string of sadistic murders.

In a time before the term "serial killer" was coined and technology acted as the right arm of the law, Emmett uncovers the trail of a madman who has been abducting black teens and using the sewers beneath the city streets as a maze in which to hunt them in a twisted game of predator and prey. While the race riots engulf Newark, crippling the city with chaos and bringing the police force to its knees, Emmett must track down the killer before the next hunt begins.