Crimes of Design

To save his beleaguered city, his career, his family and his very life, Patrick MacKenna must confront a ruthless saboteur and killer When architect and city planner Patrick MacKenna discovers the body of the city manager, his staunchest advocate, in the controversial new city-within-the city he has planned in the protected floodplain of the Missouri River, within hours he's a murder suspect. He must help solve the crime to clear his name. But his judgment is clouded by his lingering guilt over the death of his wife in an accident during a Christmas Eve ice storm, blinding him to the solution of the case. As attacks against the infrastructure increase, Patrick, a widower with an eye for beautiful women and fine old things, must outwit the law and navigate a nether world of unseen actors, questionable protectors of the public trust. He is aided by dedicated, sexy FBI Agent Bobbi Romano and Meg Stewart, the developer's project manager, who must overcome her own troubled past to help solve the mystery and win his heart. When Patrick suspects that the plot's masterminds are people he once trusted, he learns the greatest threat to the built infrastructure is not nature, but man himself. To save his beleaguered city, his career, his family and his very life, Patrick MacKenna must confront a ruthless saboteur and killer When architect and city planner Patrick MacKenna discovers the body of the city manager, his staunchest advocate, in the controversial new city-within-the city he has planned in the protected floodplain of the Missouri River, within hours he's a murder suspect. He must help solve the crime to clear his name. But his judgment is clouded by his lingering guilt over the death of his wife in an accident during a Christmas Eve ice storm, blinding him to the solution of the case. As attacks against the infrastructure increase, Patrick, a widower with an eye for beautiful women and fine old things, must outwit the law and navigate a nether world of unseen actors, questionable protectors of the public trust. He is aided by dedicated, sexy FBI Agent Bobbi Romano and Meg Stewart, the developer's project manager, who must overcome her own troubled past to help solve the mystery and win his heart. When Patrick suspects that the plot's masterminds are people he once trusted, he learns the greatest threat to the built infrastructure is not nature, but man himself. Peter Green's Crimes of Design-a "flood-plain noir" mystery-weaves a complex tale of murder, eco-terrorism, love, lust and betrayal... Set in St. Louis at the confluence of the great Mississippi and Missouri rivers, the novel dredges up fascinating facts about the rivers' pivotal roles in Midwestern Americana- wetlands law, floods, barge traffic, levees, locks, pumping stations, agricultural commodities trading, corn futures, and how they all interrelate. --Rick Skwiot, Author of FAIL