My day starts with a dead guy in the kitchen, and it usually goes downhill from there.

If I sound crazy . . . well, I’ll let you decide. You see, in my former life I was a Marine serving in Mortuary Affairs in Iraq. It was our duty—and our honor—to process the bodies of the dead. But it left a lot of us with what the military used to call “nerves” or “irritable heart” and now labels post-traumatic stress.

When I came home from the war, all I wanted was a job that would keep me far away from people while I earned an honest wage. Since I come from a long line of railroaders, I went through the police academy and then signed on as a railroad cop for Denver Pacific Continental (DPC). When your territory is 100 feet wide and 35,000 miles long, you can mostly keep to yourself. My plan worked great until the first body showed up.

My partner is a Belgian Malinois named Clyde. Clyde also served in Iraq and he’s got the doggie version of post-traumatic stress. Yeah, we’re a pair. But we love each other, and we help each other get through the day. We’re on call at three a.m. five days a week and in the office no later than eight. On a normal day, we check in with the engineers driving trains in our immediate territory and respond to any calls about trespassers or vandalism or any of the other things DPC frowns on. Sometimes we have joint training with local police or disaster training with Homeland Security. And sometimes someone gets murdered in our territory and Clyde and I head out to investigate.

Every evening, my partner and I go for a long run. Sometimes I take him to work with Avi, a man who trained K9s for Mossad. On weekends, Clyde and I make a pancake breakfast for Denver’s homeless. A lot of these men and women ride the rails—modern-day hobos following the great tradition of seeing the world from the top of a boxcar. Some of them are gutter punks—kids looking for a handout and a free ride. These “crusties” can be pretty rough—you’ll see them around town sporting filthy dreadlocks and homemade tattoos, sometimes panhandling and hassling folks near Union Station in my great city. But my heart goes out to all of them. No one is ever in a bad place out of choice.

So back to the dead guy in the kitchen. A Marine friend of mine told me, “Our ghosts are our guilt.” For surviving the war. For maybe calling in sick one day and learning that the Marine who took your place didn’t survive. The young private in my kitchen is the ghost of the first body I processed as a newly minted Marine Lance Corporal. I think he’ll be with me forever. And maybe that’s not all bad. I want to remember the warriors I took care of in their final hours on foreign soil.

None of us should forget their sacrifice.

Gone to Darknes is the fourth book in the “Sydney Rose Parnell” thriller series, released June 2, 2020.

From a Wall Street Journal bestselling author. Newly minted homicide detective Sydney Parnell faces a savage killer whose endgame is to capture her. And keep her.

Iraqi war vet and former railway cop Sydney Parnell is now the youngest homicide detective in Denver’s Major Crimes Unit. In the past, gut instinct has served her and her K9 partner well. But it’s not a trait Len Bandoni, her old nemesis turned reluctant mentor, admires. Not until Sydney’s instincts lead to their first case: a man tortured and beaten to death, then left in a refrigerated train car with cryptic messages carved into his body.

The victim is a well-liked member of an elite club called the Superior Gentlemen. At first glance, the club appears harmless. But beneath its refined surface swim darker currents.

As Sydney; her K9 partner, Clyde; and Bandoni investigate the grisly murder, the three develop a bond that carries them through a shocking series of crimes and a horrifying conspiracy that threatens the detectives’ lives and promises to bring their beloved city to its knees.

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About the author
Barbara Nickless is the Wall Street Journal and #1 Amazon Charts bestselling author of the Sydney Rose Parnell series, which includes Blood on the Tracks, a Suspense Magazine Best of 2016 selection and winner of the Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence; Dead Stop, Ambush, and Gone to Darkness. Blood on the Tracks and Dead Stop won the Colorado Book Award, and Dead Stop was nominated for the Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence. Her essays and short stories have appeared in Writer’s Digest and Criminal Element, among other markets. She lives in Colorado, where she loves to cave, snowshoe, hike, and drink single malt Scotch—usually not at the same time. Connect with her at barbaranickless.com.

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