A professional killer is targeting drug-dealing thugs mostly using the same knife-related M.O. After eight murders, police detectives William “Bernie” Bernardelli and Marcelle DeSantis have no evidence and no leads. Then things get more complicated, as they receive word that a Southeast Asian heroin group is setting up shop in Chicago. The feds send Internal Revenue Service Special Agent John Shepard, a socially inept accountant with a generalized anxiety disorder, to meet with the detectives. Shepard asks Bernie and Marcelle to protect the heroin group’s American security head, Robert Thornton, making sure no one kills him before he can testify: “We need twenty-four-hour surveillance on Thornton. Two-man teams who follow Thornton whenever he leaves his mansion.” Now, Bernie and Marcelle want to know all about Thornton, convinced that the peculiar Shepard has withheld vital information about the criminal. Meanwhile, quite a few people want a set of covert missions conducted in Vietnam years ago involving Thornton to stay deeply buried. As the two detectives scramble to prevent a drug war, they confront rival gangs, a frighteningly meticulous hit man, and someone who’s craving lethal vengeance. Well-developed characters drive Rabin’s taut thriller, as chummy partners Bernie and Marcelle spend much of their time digging into Shepard’s and Thornton’s shady pasts. Shepard, meanwhile, seemingly takes steps to overcome his anxiety, such as learning the “secret language” infused in other people’s social interactions. There’s nevertheless little in the way of a mystery or an investigation, as the stellar opening scene set during the Vietnam War fuels the main plot. Still, tensions slowly escalate throughout the novel. For example, one recurring narrative perspective reveals a man mowing his lawn and making lunch followed by a post office trip for cash pickups—his payments for assassinations. Although action is fleeting, the story builds to a lengthy, sensational final act, brimming with well-earned suspense.