The Terrorist Next Door

He's Homeland Security's biggest nightmare. Someone is setting off fire bombs in Chicago in stolen cars using untraceable cell phones. The international terror channels are silent. A group calling itself the Islamic Freedom Federation demands the release of Hassan Al-Shahid, a graduate student whose plan to set off a bomb at the Art Institute was thwarted by Detective David Gold and his long-time partner, Detective Paul Liszewski. Their heroic efforts had cost Liszewski his life and put Gold in the hospital. The FBI and Homeland Security believe the bomber is a freelancer operating off the grid.

Meet Detective David Gold. He's a third generation native of South Chicago, the hardscrabble neighborhood of steel mills, smokestacks, and steeples near the Indiana border. He's one of Chicago's most decorated detectives.

Meet Gold's new partner, Detective A.C. Battle. He's a native of Mississippi whose family moved to Chicago to escape the Jim Crow South. He grew up in the Robert Taylor Homes across the Dan Ryan Expressway from Mayor Daley's house and Comiskey Park.

Gold is still suffering from the aftereffects of Liszewski's death when he receives a Medal of Valor on the steps of the Art Institute. During the ceremony, a car bomb is detonated across the street, killing a passerby. Gold soon receives a cryptic text : "It isn't over."

It's just the beginning. Untraceable car bombs detonate at the Wrigley Field El station, Millennium Park, the Museum of Science and Industry, O'Hare, Hyde Park, and the upscale Rush Street area. Chicago PD, the FBI and Homeland Security can't trace the bomber.

As bombs continue to go off, Gold and Battle are drawn into a desperate cat-and-mouse game against a brilliant mind. From its opening scene to its stunning denouement, Siegel writes a lightning paced thriller capturing the complexity and fears of the post-9/11 world. Along the way, he provides an insider's look at Chicago's neighborhoods-from the Magnificent Mile to century-old churches where mass is still celebrated in Polish to gritty seafood shacks next to the ghostly expanses where the steel mills once stood.