Death Before Life

A scream in the predawn hours sends Chicago police to a grisly scene in tony Old Town.

The lifeless body of a young law school student lies sprawled across the front seat of her Jaguar, an icepick sticking in her neck.

Veteran CPD homicide detective Mike Halloran has made a career solving "heater" cases, but finding who killed the daughter of the State's Attorney puts him under a microscope of the top police brass. When a series of frustrating leads fizzle, a long-forgotten letter from a prison inmate is discovered that points to a prime suspect.

But as Halloran and his partner, Syl Ortiz, try to arrest the suspect, a pulsating chase leads to a dramatic shootout.

With his partner suffering from a life-threatening chest wound, Halloran has to choose between saving his wounded partner or chasing the gunman. After Eric Peterson eludes a police dragnet, Halloran stews for weeks about the escape until the State's Attorney funds Halloran in an off-the-books pursuit that leads Halloran from the gritty streets of Chicago to a scenic hill station in the foothills of the Himalayas.

There, Halloran lures Peterson into a trap that brings him back to face justice in a climactic showdown in the Criminal Courts building on Chicago's West Side.