When staying alive is the only game worth playing…

Detective Jacob Striker has had more than his fair share of brushes with death. But this one really shocks him. When he is called to attend a suicide at a decrepit apartment on the bad side of town, he expects to find one more life lost to mental illness and drug addiction. But this time the victim is not just another sad statistic, this time it's someone Striker knows.

And one thing is obvious to Striker: this wasn't suicide.

Striker's investigation quickly leads him to the Riverglen Mental Health Facility. The victim was a patient from the support group overseen by psychiatrist Dr Erich Ostermann. And when Striker discovers Larisa Logan - a dear friend of his, and also a patient of Dr Ostermann - has gone missing, his investigation goes into overdrive.

Racing against time and a chilling adversary, Striker searches desperately for Larisa. It is a dangerous game they play, where one throw of the dice can catapult you to a place of dominance - or send you sliding to your doom.

Sean Slater is the pseudonym for Vancouver Police Officer Sean Sommerville. As a police officer, Sommerville works in Canada's poorest slum, the Downtown East Side—an area rife with poverty, mental illness, drug use, prostitution, and gang warfare. He has investigated everything from frauds and extortions to homicides. Sommerville has written numerous columns and editorials for the city newspaper. When not patrolling the “Skids,” Sean is working hard on the next novel in the Jacob Striker series.

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