Eager to leave behind a disheartening past of false starts, Robert Connelly has chosen to become a private investigator, commencing work with veteran investigator Joseph Poblano to gain experience handling routine cases. The young man, though, immediately finds himself drawn into waters that are anything but routine when the first case he and Poblano tackle involves the disappearance of university professor Ilona LaCroix.

Privately disagreeing with his mentor's approach, Robert goes off on his own, obtaining information that illuminates more about the case in one swoop than Poblano could probably ever explain. Events, however, take a shocking turn, preventing the young man from sharing his newfound intelligence.

Michael W. Drwiega was born in Chicago and raised in the Chicago area until he went away to college at the University of Iowa where he earned a B.

A. degree.

The nature of his work experiences provided a rich variety of material from which a writer might draw. In the 1980s, he served his country for six years as an enlisted man in Germany.

After an honorable discharge, he obtained a doctorate in political science from the University of Iowa, worked as a certified nurse aide at a local nursing home for three years and, during the same period, ran a seasonal business selling calendars in downtown Iowa City. Since 2004, he has worked at a popular grocery store in the village where he grew up, Wilmette, Illinois.

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