Hunting the Alpha Wolf: A Detective Finley Mystery

Marco Manfre 4 stories

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Summary

NYPD Detective Connor Finley, who survived a childhood defined by an abusive father and an alcoholic mother, is dedicated to solving a decades-old series of murders committed by a perpetrator who has become known as the Alpha Wolf. Connor had joined the NYPD in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, which had occurred right after the ghastly murder of his best friend, Vernon Washington. Connor is obsessively committed to investigating the murders, even when they are not part of his caseload, going so far as to repeatedly violate departmental regulations and bend the law, because he believes he owes an obligation to his deceased friend Vernon, on account of their close relationship: Vernon’s mother had welcomed Connor into her home when his biological mother, in the midst of a prolonged alcoholic downswing, abandoned him at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan. More than that, Connor believes he had been at least partially responsible for Vernon’s death. A secondary plot, which ties into the two major threads of the novel—Connor’s attempts to solve the Alpha Wolf murders and his dark, heavy burden relating to his connection to how Vernon died—is linked to Mariposa Lopez, a stunning beauty with problems of her own, who had been Vernon’s girlfriend and who Connor had been infatuated with from the moment he first saw her.