The Shard of Redemption

"Belief's a luxury. Proof keeps you alive." When the faces in a stranger's manga match the ones in his nightmares, private investigator Neil Ames knows the past hasn't stayed buried-it's been drawn in ink. In the rain-infused Pacific Northwest city of Destiny Pointe, a case shaped as much by memory as evidence begins to unravel. Emily Granger was murdered twenty years ago. Or so the official story says. Now a decorated homicide detective is dead, and his final message is addressed to Neil. A second autopsy. A forged death certificate. A case once thought closed begins tearing apart the life Neil fought to rebuild. With his resourceful confidante Octavia Clarke, still recovering from a near-fatal attack during their last case, Neil follows a ciphered path laced with danger-from the gritty shipyards of Destiny Pointe to Tokyo's watchful towers, and into the cold, high reaches of Khan Tengri on the New Silk Trail. Each clue exposes a larger design ... a global alliance that thrives on collapse and hides its true intentions behind the mask of innovation. Trapped between a missing identity, a rising body count, and a manga mirroring reality, Neil must face the truth that shattered his life-and decide if redemption is even possible. It started with a lie. The reckoning's coming.