The Dark Shield

Before his demotion Joe McKeefe was acelebrated and highly decorated detective who had been recognized as a rising star in the police department. Now he was finishing his career as a uniformed patrol officer in the precinct with city's highest crime rate a place where the murder of a low-life junkie was so common as to be almost trivial.<p>This victim however was different: hehad once been McKeefe's informant.<p>McKeefe is disgusted by the superficial manner in which the official murderinvestigation is handled so he begins to poke around. But this murder isn't as insignificant as it appeared-in fact it's collateral damage from an elaborate scheme the players of which are a crooked narcotics sergeant and the city's major drug dealers. They have different motivations: the sergeant's all-consuming and obsessive lust for money is only matched by the drug dealers' fixation withstaying out of prison. But neither side has even the slightest concern for human life.<p>As McKeefe's probe continues he discovers that a pawn in the plan is his only brother a criminal defense lawyer who in McKeefe's words lives off crime and defends slime.<p>Unwittingly McKeefe's good intentions slowly but irreversibly drag him deeper and deeper into the quagmire. Before long he finds he has jeopardized himself his brother his partner and possibly the entire police department.