An all-out drug war explodes in 1970s Detroit when a young Vietnam veteran decides to rip off heroin kingpin Willis McDaniel. In the chaos, rival outfits, the Mafia, and even junkies themselves try to step in to fill the void while one lone assassin tries to hunt them all down-and one determined cop tries to stop it all.

Vern E. Smithformerly served as the Atlanta Bureau chief and as a national correspondent forNewsweek. As a principal reporter withNewsweek's Special Projects Unit, he contributed to four cover stories later published as books. One of the stories, "Charlie Co.: What Vietnam Did to Us," won the 1981 National Magazine Award for Single Issue Topic. He also served as a principal reporter and blogger for the 2004 Voices of Civil Rights oral history project, which is permanently housed in the Library of Congress. His work has also appeared inEmerge, theLondon Sunday Times,Ebony,GEO, theCrisismagazine,Merianmagazine, and theHistory ChannelMagazine.