Richard Price

"Back in the bad old days, when Billy Graves worked for an anti-crime unit in [the South Bronx] known as the Wild Geese, the NYPD branded him as a cowboy. Now forty, he has somehow survived and become a sergeant in Manhattan Night Watch. Mostly, his team of detectives conducts a series of holding actions -- and after years in police purgatory, Billy is content simply to do his job. But soon after he gets a [4:00] a.m. call about the fatal knifing...

Follows a single sprawling drug investigation in Baltimore, against the backdrop of the mayor's reelection campaign. Told from the point of view of both the police and their targets, where easy distinctions between good and evil are challenged at every turn.