Scorched Earth
Book 1 of The Thomas Parchmarks Series
Fourth of July, 2008. Seven homes in the most affluent neighborhoods of Chicago are burned to ruin. A crime serious enough to earn the arsonist a name from the Chicago papers. The Independence Day Torcher. IDT for short. IDT is an arson investigator’s worst nightmare. A methodical, sophisticated, and ferocious architect of fires, decimating the targets while leaving minimal clues.
The nature of these seven fires triggers a series of questions. Is IDT targeting the wealthy? Is there something symbolic to the Fourth of July? And why these seven victims? Answering these questions is a daunting task for Chicago detectives, but a road to redemption for one particular investigator.
Ex-Federal Agent Thomas Parchmarks has one goal. Return to the field for the FBI. There’s just one problem. The aftermath of a deep cover sting gone wrong leaves Thomas nearly crippled. Fighting to get back on his feet, Thomas takes on an independent investigation. Hoping that cracking the IDT case will be his ticket back to the FBI, Thomas must resort to a unique investigation strategy. Using statistics and machine learning, Thomas quickly finds himself several steps ahead of Chicago’s elite investigators. Will it be enough to get him the invite to rejoin the FBI?
Thomas teams up with a lone-wolf ATF agent, an FBI profiler from his past, and the witty, charming, and resourceful John-Thomas Mason, a former tech entrepreneur turned private equity investor. In his face-off with IDT, Thomas must endure the pains of his past to give him a chance at a future with the FBI. And a shot at thwarting IDT before his next fire-setting spree.
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