the Condemned: From Files of St. Louis Police Homicide Division

The Condemned From the Files of the St. Louis Police Homicide Division - Book 12 Gary LudwigA condemned four-family flat in Gravois Park. A broken staircase. A city building inspector at the bottom of it.To City Hall, it looks like an accident waiting to happen.To Detective Sergeant Mick Callahan, it looks like someone counted on that.Thomas "Tom" Martin was found after a cold rain, his official clipboard still nearby, his city phone gone, a thick manila folder missing. Pale dust from the second-floor renovation coats his jacket. Blood is upstairs. The padlock that was supposed to keep the building sealed hangs open. Martin had no scheduled inspection that night. He told his daughter he was going to make something right-then he drove into the dark and never came home.Callahan and Detective Darius Coleman treat the building as a homicide scene before anyone wants to hear the word. The medical examiner finds a blow that does not match a simple fall. A painted construction tool leaves its mark. A dark crossover arrives before Martin and leaves after he is dying. Someone uses Martin's phone after he is already dead and deletes the appointment that brought him there.The victim is not simple. Martin condemned buildings and put families on the street. He also kept a notebook of parcel numbers, cash deposits, and initials. Developers, a permit consultant, a contractor, a city colleague, and an angry housing activist all had reasons to fear what he carried. Some of the buildings he approved are still occupied. Some of them should never have passed.Pressure comes fast: a leak that paints Martin as corrupt before his family is notified, a city statement that wants the problem contained to one inspector, a weapon that points one direction while the crime scene points another. Callahan refuses the easy story. An unsafe building can kill a man. So can the people who profit from leaving it that way.Who met Martin upstairs? Who took the folder? Who needed him silent before morning?The answers are inside the condemned building-and in the system that posted the notice on the door.A tightly plotted St. Louis police procedural about a death that looks accidental, a victim who is not innocent, and a city where the cracks in the walls are the least of what has been concealed.