Faces of the gone

Brad Parks

Four bodies, each with a single bullet wound in the back of the head, stacked like cordwood in a weed-choked vacant lot. That's the front-page news facing Carter Ross, investigative reporter with the Newark Eagle-Examiner. The victims--an exotic dancer, a drug dealer, a hustler, and a mama's boy--came from different parts of the city and didn't seem to know one another. The police, eager to calm jittery residents, leak a theory that the murders are revenge for a bar stickup. Determined to uncover the true story, Carter enlists the aide of city editor Tina Thompson to run interference at the office; gay Cuban intern Tommy Hernandez to help him with legwork on the streets; and stripper Tynesha Dales to take him to Newark's underside. It turns out that the four victims have one connection after all, and this knowledge will put Carter on the path of one very ambitious killer.