When a prostitute is raped and murdered in a seedy Seattle hotel room, two homicide detectives assigned the case uncover a trail of corruption behind the killing. Pursuing their leads relentlessly, they become targets as their investigation threatens to tear down the very halls of justice they are sworn to serve. Inspired by his own lengthy career as a homicide detective, David Kannas’s debut is a gritty, edgy new detective series in the vein of Michael Connelly’s Detective Bosch. Don Lake is a Vietnam veteran with two degrees and a sizable amount of inherited wealth—including an original Jackson Pollock. He’s a sophisticated old soul wrapped in the coarse, tough exterior of a homicide detective. His partner Chuck Weinstein is a no-nonsense, take-no-shit Jewish kid from Kansas whose heritage and sexual preference made him the target of abuse. The black belt in karate, however, made sure that the abuse never caused him too much trouble. Assigned the case of a brutally raped and murdered prostitute in a Seattle hotel, the detectives quickly find themselves in deeper than they could have ever possibly imagined. And as their investigation gets more and more dangerous with every clue they uncover, a second murder threatens to uncover corruption at the highest levels and bring down the very ideals of justice they are devoted to upholding. A true-to-life look at the inner workings of a major metropolitan police department, David Kannas’s first installment of his Detective Lake series is razor sharp, exploring the line between cop and criminal with an insider’s knowledge of events and procedures. But it does more than that. It examines our very nature, the light and dark within us, and the fact that who we appear to be often has little to do with who we really are. Told through the weary eyes of a detective in search of redemption for all he has seen and done, Still Life with Badge is a gripping, tightly wound journey into the soul of those sworn to protect and serve.
