Quieting the Storm

"I sat on the couch with my forearms on my knees and my fingers interlaced and considered the meaning of what I'd discovered in the steamer trunk. The trunk had traveled with me from France. I'd seen the stevedores in Cherbourg carry it up the gangway to be stowed in the hold of the SS Lapland. When I'd opened it, I had expected the smell of the Cosmoline grease protecting the layered weapons packed inside. I had not expected the smell of perfume. It was slight and didn't belong in a chest full of weapons, but then neither did the body. Beneath the packing blanket and on top of the paper and grease-wrapped gun parts was the corpse of a young woman."

John Griffin, a disfigured and disturbed veteran of the Great War, has returned to New York City to rescue his unlikely friend, Patricia Kingsbury, from her estranged father, Harry Armistan. However, his mission to save Patricia is immediately derailed by the sinister appearance of the body of a young woman in his steamer trunk. Convinced the girl's death is somehow connected to Patricia and her father, Griffin seeks the girl's killer. He soon finds himself wanted by the police and hunted by unknown assassins. When Patricia disappears, Griffin embarks upon a violent quest to find her. His search brings him from Wall Street to Long Island and beyond. He is forced to confront his own dark nature, and, ultimately, evils that are beyond even his imagining.