"I was physically and mentally braced for whatever death brings. Then I began to think rationally, and gained control of the thought process. If he intended to kill me, would he do it in a public place?" The reader is taken inside a federal agent's undercover world, and witnesses a life-and-death race against time to prevent a contract killing. His mission is to hunt down a paid assassin - only to find that he himself is hired as the killer. He encounters the New Orleans mafia, cop killers, bank robbers, gamblers, race fixers, and eventually, Interpol. He struggles to maintain his own moral compass; and at one point prays silently as a killer presses a sawed-off shotgun to his head. The story exposes the underworld of the Cajun French. The characters and events are based on an extraordinary, hard-hitting, true crime story. "Palumbo's harrowing undercover work raised goose bumps on my arms. He proves the old adage that Sicilians make the best criminals and the best cops as he takes us step-by-step through murder-for-hire in the corruption capital of the world - Louisiana." -- O'Neil De Noux, Shamus and Derringer award winning author of ten crime novels, including JOHN RAVEN BEAU, CRESCENT CITY KILLS, and the epic of love and war, BATTLE KISS. His short stories have appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine.
