The Heart to Kill — Blake Banner

Dave Thorndike, an investigative reporter on the New York Telegraph, is in the habit of disappearing for weeks at a time. So when he vanishes in the winter of 2008, investigating the story of his life, nobody worries -- until he shows up shot in the head with his own 9mm -- no laptop and no story.

It wasn't much to go on in 2008, but when Stone and Dehan pick it up ten years later, the case is as cold as the icy winds blowing off the East River. Both his wife and his mistress had motive, but the killing has all the hallmarks of an execution.

Things get deep when Dehan realizes Thorndike's investigation was into non other than Senator Carol Hennessy, head of the Hennessy Foundation and presidential candidate -- a woman whose opponents tended to die young. But that's not the only thing she notices. She also sees Shelly Pierce, the sexy new editor of the NY Telegraph, coming on to Stone.

A fact to which Stone seems totally blind…