Cold pursuit

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Homicide cop Tom McMichael is on the rotation when Pete Braga, an 84-year-old city patriarch, businessman and former mayor is found by the beautiful young nurse hired to watch after him—bludgeoned to death. The Irish McMichaels and Portuguese Bragas share a violent history: as a commercial tuna clipper captain way back in 1952 Pete Braga shot dead a young crewman who believed he was owed a paycheck. That man was Franklin McMichael, Tom’s grandfather. Pete Braga’s son, Victor, who was then thirteen, is then severely beaten behind a waterfront bar one night. Most people believe that Franklin’s son—Tom’s father—did it in revenge. Victor survives the attack, but he’s mentally stunted. Though his body matured, his mind remains that of a ten-year-old. The alleged attacker—Gabriel—has denied it for his whole dissolute, wasted, booze-filled life. The nurse looks good as a suspect. She claims to have gone out for firewood that night, then returned from the store to find Pete dead. She’s covered with blood and not forthcoming with McMichael and his partner, Hector Paz. The investigation expands to Pete’s business acquaintances, his family, the Catholic diocese in San Diego, a multi-million-dollar Indian casino manager, an old cop buddy, a prostitute, and some expanding incongruities between the nurse’s story and the evidence that they continue to find. It’s a tale of blood feuds, secret passions and long-held resentment that will have readers spellbound until the final shocking pages.