With my coauthor and journalist Jeff Biggers, Disturbing the Bones is a propulsive political thriller set in the aftermath of a global nuclear weapons crisis in an election year and the final days of a clashing presidential campaign. When a plot by a rogue general to disrupt a global peace summit in Chicago collides with a civil rights case breakthrough at a mysterious archaeological site, Disturbing the Bones hurdles to its fiery conclusion, as the lives of a young archaeologist and a veteran cop —and the fate of the world — hang in the balance.

Chicago detective Randall Jenkins has not been back home to the historic Civil Rights hotspot of Cairo, Illinois since the disappearance of his mother, a well-known journalist, when he was a young teen, several decades ago. That all changes the day Dr. Molly Moore, an ambitious young archaeologist in the national spotlight for her groundbreaking high-tech discoveries, uncovers a set of strange bones at a huge 12,000-year-old site at a highway construction project. With retired military general and contractor William Alexander breathing down her neck to cover up the dig, Molly and Randall soon find themselves in the middle of a wild military conspiracy. The detective and archaeologist’s entwined family mysteries suddenly thrust them into the central position as the only people who can ensure the safety of the ongoing Chicago global peace summit. They must take on the rogue general who views any disarmament agreement as a clear and present danger to the United States.