Topher Davis Thriller

A TV investigative reporter and his sister, a San Francisco PD homicide detective, look into the slayings of Bay Area cops who have shot unarmed African Americans yet faced no repercussions in this debut crime thriller.

When San Francisco Police Officer Mickey Driscoll is gunned down in the driveway of his suburban Bay Area home in broad daylight, the suspects are numerous. Was the murder committed by someone close to him? An arrestee seeking revenge?

Or was it one of the many rioters, activists, and militant groups harassing his family since he accidentally shot and killed an unarmed African American honor student?

TV investigative reporter Topher Davis, the only Black journalist on that beat, has exactly three weeks to do one final story before his position is eliminated due to corporate budget cuts. Enlisting the aid of his sister, SFPD Homicide Detective Lynn Sloan, he decides to investigate what the families of Blacks killed by police—and the families of the cops themselves—go through when tragic events like this occur. Instead, they find themselves involved in an ever-expanding mystery as more officers who’ve committed the same offense turn up dead. Weaving their way through a world of grieving mothers and widows, African American militias, dirty cops, and drug dealers, they search for the truth that threatens to leave one … or both … siblings dead.

“Brian Copeland’s thrilling debut novel is a revelation from an excitingly fresh voice ‘of color’ in the arena of crime fiction … He manages to take a ‘ripped from the headlines’ topic, the shooting of unarmed African Americans by police, and turn it into an exciting and entertaining blend of action, mystery, and social commentary.” —Jonathan Kellerman, New York Times bestselling author