The Commission - Hardcover

"A refreshing throwback to the lean, straight-ahead police procedurals of the Dragnet era. In his fiction debut, Norman's precise, foursquare prose is a perfect match for his story. Bring on the series." --"Kirkus Reviews""Fast pacing, plot twists, engaging characters, and an inside view of the prison system combine in this strong series debut." --"Booklist ""A no-frills police procedural, none the worse for its lack of fashionable violence." --"London Times""This impressive debut from a criminal justice professor and former lawman exudes verisimilitude from start to finish...Norman is off to a fine start with this alternately gripping and repellent crime novel." --"Publisher's Weekly "starred review "

Levi Vogue, Chairman of the powerful Utah Board of Pardons and Parole, is gunned down in the driveway of his home as he returns from a late evening tryst with Sue Ann Winkler, an exotic dancer employed in a Salt Lake City strip club. Sam Kincaid, Chief of the Special Investigations Branch (SIB) of the Utah Department of Corrections, is assigned to help Salt Lake City Police Department homicide detective Lt. Kate McConnell solve Vogue's murder. The investigation soon leads Kincaid and McConnell into the seedy world of prostitution and strip clubs. Ultimately, the investigation focuses on Charles (Slick) Watts, a violent ex-convict with a long criminal history and a score to settle with Levi Vogue. But before Watts can be apprehended, his body is discovered at an abandoned military base in Wendover, Nevada. When the medical examiner concludes that Watt's death was a homicide elaborately staged to look like a suicide, Kincaid and McConnell are forced to turn their attention to a complex conspiracy behind the murders. Ultimately, the investigation leads Kincaid and McConnell inside the Utah state prison to a small group of corrupt prison employees known as the Commission. As the police close in, Commission members turn, first on each other, and then on Kincaid.