[Badge of Honor 09] • The Traffickers

Griffin's popular Badge of Honor police series returns, with a story of murder and lawlessness as compelling as today's headlines.

J ust as with his remarkable military novels, millions of readers have been captured by the rich characters and vivid realism of W. E. B. Griffin's police dramas. [ Griffin has the knack, [? writes "The Philadelphia Inquirer." [ He sets his novel before you in short, fierce, stop-for-nothing scenes. Before you know it, you've gobbled it up.[?

Homicide Sergeant Matthew Payne is used to murder, but lately there's been an awful lot of it in Philadelphia. A gangland shooting in a popular tourist location has left six dead, most of them innocent bystanders, and days later the body of a headless Latina turns up in the Schuykill River. Everybody assumes they're not related, but Payne can't shake the hunch that there's something more to it[ and that hunch leads him far from the City of Brotherly Love to the Texas[ Mexico border. There, he finds a world where the lines of law and order are murkier than he ever imagined possible, and the daily question is [ "O Plato o Plomo"?[? Silver or lead. Cash or death.

Which will Matt Payne take? Or will he just go home, glad to be alive . . . ?

Filled with authentic color and detail, this is a riveting novel of the men and women who put their lives on the line, from the cop on the beat to the commissioner himself. It's a story of fears, dangers, courage, loyalty, and genuine heroism: storytelling at its best.