On one of the hottest nights ever recorded in New York City, two major events take place: a city-wide power outage, and a woman is shot dead in an empty pool in Astoria Park. She’s a fellow NYPD detective and close friend of Sam Archer. It turns out the rest of her police team have disappeared and a call comes into the Counter-Terrorism Bureau the following morning. The three detectives have been kidnapped and a high ransom demand is made.

The missing three are all members of Sergeant Jake Hendricks’ team, a colleague of Archer’s with a bruising approach to policework. Working with his detective partner, the rest of his team out of town, Archer offers to deliver the ransom, but then discovers what the kidnappers want isn’t that straightforward. While being run around the sweltering city, doing all he can to obey instructions to keep his colleagues alive, Archer must try to find out why Hendricks’ team has been targeted.

There are certain clues, linking back to incidents in the past. A dead police officer, killed in his home in August 2001. A firefighter who committed suicide a few weeks later, on the morning of 9/11. And a woman who knows more, but has been intimidated into remaining silent. Archer is determined to find who killed his friend and what the connection is between these events.

But in the stifling heat of the city, there are people who are equally determined to stop him.