Regard for the Dead

Kevin Maloney has a strong inclination to serve others. Now separated from the military where as a US Navy hospital corpsman he treated wounded Marines on the battlefields of Afghanistan hes applied to become a firefighter in his hometown of Philadelphia. In the interim he sleeps on his brothers couch and works in a nearby Penns Landing tourist attraction.Mark Francini is a sports reporter willing to take chances to get the attention of the sports-media complex. When a local rising-star basketball player named Jerome Lawrence makes an unexpected exit from the public eye Mark is bent on making something of the story.A rekindled friendship with old school buddy Kevin Maloney quickly leads the pair into the neighborhoods of West Philly but when they locate the athlete near his childhood home they are shocked to discover the aspiring pro is dead his corpse abandoned and disfigured. Mark is ready to write the ending to Jeromes sad story but Kevin cant let it go and enlists the help of his uncle a priest and seminary professor to sort out the details. Together they unravel related events and make connections that seem unbelievable. Soon the cooperation between Kevins circle of companions and police sets the stage for the wild capture of a previously unimaginable menace to the city.