Cheryl Shivery Nickle
Norah Parrish gets out of the car in a Baltimore city garage to help her husband Patrick turn around when she suddenly finds herself caught on a dark street, watching him drive off without her. She is apprehended by several men in hoodies and taken hostage by their leader, who drives her blindfolded to a rowhome where she is processed for a crime of theft she did not commit and held against her will. She finds herself surrounded by other supposed 'criminals' in a dingy, windowless, barely furnished upstairs room where they are all treated like animals - with no way out.Norah discovers they are being held by a group of vigilantes who target those who appear indigent and homeless by forcibly removing them from the streets of Maryland cities and towns. When rescued by Patrick, Norah finds her husband is secretly working for an undercover government operation known as UMCO (Undercover Maryland Covert Operations) which is investigating this vigilante entity.Getting over her anger at being used as a decoy, Norah discovers she wants to partner with her husband and help with the investigation. But she gets sucked deeper into danger at every turn and wonders if she’ll survive long enough to help other victims who have been traumatized by their imprisonment like she was.Set in the author’s native Cecil County and other real-life settings in Maryland and Virginia, this contemporary suspense is full of riveting intrigue that addresses the question, is vigilante 'justice' ever justified, and if not, how can we defeat it?
