Mullen, Thomas

"Responding to orders from on high, the Atlanta Police Department is forced to hire its first black officers ... Lucius Boggs and Tommy Smith. The newly minted policemen are met with deep hostility by their white peers; they aren't allowed to arrest white suspects, drive squad cars, or set foot in the police headquarters. When a black woman who was last seen in a car driven by a white man turns up dead, Boggs and Smith suspect white cops are behind it. Their investigation sets them up against a brutal cop, Dunlow, who has long run the neighborhood as his own, and his partner, Rakestraw, a young progressive who may or may not be willing to make allies across color lines"--Provided by publisher.

The residents of the small Pacific Northwest town of Commonwealth decides to quarantine themselves against the deadly influenza epidemic, posting guards at the only road leading in and out of town, but when a cold, hungry, and ill soldier begs for sanctuary, the encounter--and its aftermath--shakes the town to its core.

Deep in the forests of the Pacific Northwest, a mill town called Commonwealth votes to quarantine itself in the wake of the 1918 flu pandemic, but a violent confrontation with a tired, hungry, and cold soldier will have devastating repercussions for the entire town.