Identity Lost

It's July, 1975 and an overworked Chicago police force receives a call that an 85-year-old white man has been attacked by a gang of black youths on the lakefront in Burnham Park. Amid public outrage, contentious Mayor Richard J. Daley commands his police to find the killers fast and make the bucolic park safe again. Uncommonly but fortunately for the police, twelve-year-old James Overstreet steps forward and identifies five of the six assailants and arrests are made. But detectives and county attorneys bungle the case, leaving the judge no choice but to release the accused. This startling turn of events jeopardizes James's life, forcing the entire Overstreet family into witness protection in Arizona, and creates a nightmare that will haunt the brave witness forever. Fast-forward thirty years. The stoic young man has grown to become Maricopa County's most feared prosecutor. But his life is about to be turned upside down when paths from the past cross into the present, veering toward a shocking climax.

Pascal Marco, a Chicago native and long time resident, uses his intimacy with that city and his present residence to weave a tale of terror and murder with as many twists and turns as the city streets themselves. A successful entrepreneur and businessman, he's a graduate of the University of Illinois Chicago and a member of the Scottsdale Writers Group.