The system doesn't always fail quietly.
Sometimes it fails in court.
When violent offenders walk free on flawless technicalities, the city absorbs the loss and moves on. Families don't. Neither does Chief Thomas Reed.
In this installment of the Due Process series, Reed does not expose corruption or dismantle conspiracies. He does something far more dangerous-he understands the system exactly as it is. When the law cannot correct its own failures, Reed intervenes with precision, restraint, and absolute control.
The killings are deliberate.
The victims are perpetrators who escaped justice.
The suspects are chosen carefully-and convicted cleanly.
No rules are broken.
No evidence is falsified.
No alarms are triggered.
As analysts notice patterns they can't submit, detectives sense outcomes they can't challenge, and prosecutors accept certainty over doubt, the system begins to cooperate on its own. Cases close faster. Noise disappears. Public confidence stabilizes.
And Reed remains exactly where he belongs-respected, untouched, and watching.
This is not escalation.
This is reversion.
A cold, procedural thriller about authority, restraint, and what happens when the law doesn't stop violence-but manages it.
Perfect for readers who want grounded crime fiction, institutional tension, and moral ambiguity without heroes, conspiracies, or easy answers.
