A Common Ordinary Murder

Steven McCord, a lieutenant of police in a fairly large midwestern city, has been coarsened by twenty years' exposure to violence and cruelty. At forty-two, he has reached a crossroads in his career and in his life. He's been entrusted with command of one of his city's toughest districts, and as a senior lieutenant, he is poised for promotion to captain. But instead he's studying law–because he wants out. His old mentor, Sergeant Hughes, fears that McCord will soon enter into that most contemptible of all legal specialties, criminal defense. McCord denies it, but in truth he doesn't know exactly where he's going to end up.

Then comes the "common ordinary murder" of an old eccentric–a resident of McCord's district–and with it a personal crisis for McCord. Having given up on God long ago, he now seems to be losing faith in humanity as well. But something about the case draws him, against his will, deeper into the lives of the victim and his family, pulling McCord back to a place where he will know again the passion and pain of being alive.