Publisher's Synopsis
Oscar Kingman is having a bad day. Everyone that loved him, everyone that should have cared for him or protected him has either abandoned him or died. At just three years of age he was surviving on the street with his mother. By the time Oscar was six she was dead of an overdose. When at last he found affection, fate struck again and completely alone, Oscar found himself first in an orphanage and then a catholic boarding school. Like so many before him, he fails to understand and accept their faith and even as a small child he is branded a sinner. Confused and alone, young Oscar accepts this damning verdict and retreats within himself. Eventually, no longer able to bear the beatings and abuse, he fights back and so suffers horrendous punishment at the hands of his carers and teachers. By the time Oscar Kingman emerges into adulthood, he is deeply scarred and socially inept. He is different, and he survives by becoming as invisible as a man can be. But the world is just getting started on him. Oscar Kingman might be your neighbour. He might be the homeless guy you pass each day on the way to work, or the loner that you bait in the office every day. Beware your judgement. Roger Becker is a Homicide Detective in Charlotte, North Carolina. A good man and a dogged investigator, he is nonetheless disengaged from the brutality of the world around him. Becker tracks the fugitive to New York where fate positions him as judge and jury in the bizarre trial of Oscar Kingman. In the basement in Brooklyn, Roger Becker is forced to question his own beliefs and integrity, and to confront the cruel reality of the world around him.
