Police called it a heart attack. His widow calls it murder.
The Union Stockyards allow no weakness. When labor organizer Frank Murphy dies in a locked room just days before a crucial strike vote, the official ruling is convenient: natural causes. But a hidden codebook tells a different story.
Desperate for the truth, his widow turns to O’Malley Investigations.
To solve the case, Paddy O’Malley must return to the brutal slaughterhouse floors of his youth, risking his life to earn the workers' trust. Meanwhile, Kit Ashworth infiltrates the city’s elite, discovering that society matrons in pearls are ordering hits over afternoon tea.
Together, they uncover a conspiracy linking the kill floor to the State’s Attorney. With professional hitmen closing in and the political machine desperate to bury the evidence, Kit and Paddy must expose the corruption before they become the next casualties of the yards.
Justice demands a heavy price in this gripping 1920s historical mystery.
Daniel Pelfrey writes thrillers, crime fiction, alternate history, and urban fantasy with a crime fiction twist. A former Air Force member and TSA employee who once dealt blackjack and substitute taught, Daniel draws on his diverse life experiences to craft character-driven narratives. When he's not building intricate story arcs from his home in Medora, North Dakota, he's busy being a reader himself—occasionally remembering there's a world outside his books.View all by Daniel Pelfrey
