Book excerpt: St. Louis Police Lt. George Hastings is loyal to the people under his command. When they're right, he backs them all the way. Sometimes it gets him in trouble. So after a round of butting heads with the top brass, Hastings and his team catch a lousy detail—keeping an eye on Senator Alan Preston, a political star looking to storm the national stage in the upcoming presidential elections. There's only one problem with Preston's plans. It seems that John Reese, a veteran and former CIA agent whom Preston prosecuted while a U.S. Attorney, has escaped from prison and may be looking to settle the score. Preston won't reveal any details. All he'll say is that Reese is a traitor who should've been executed a long time ago. But as Hastings guards the senator, he uncovers a much different story about Reese, one that isn't as cut-and-dried as Preston would like everyone to believe, one that would give a man like Reese plenty of reason to want revenge at any cost. As Hastings races to stop Reese, he quickly finds that he's not the only one hunting this most dangerous prey and that Reese isn't the only one caught in the crosshairs of politicians and professional killers in The Silent Places, another pulse-pounding read from James Patrick Hunt.