The Phosphor Fires

In the rain-slicked canyons of Northwood, a catastrophic school bus crash leaves six children dead and a city demanding answers. Homicide detective Leo Vance navigates a labyrinth of product liability lawsuits and corporate obfuscation, only to discover the tragedy was no accident—it was the perfect experiment of a brilliant, god-complexed engineer. Dr. Julian Croft designed the bus's fatal flaw to prove his seatbelt mandate theory before the Supreme Court of public opinion. Told in the terse, multi-threaded style of Ed McBain, this is a story where justice is a cold footnote to power, and a killer’s conscience flickers like a dying phosphor fire in the urban abyss.