It's been a tough winter in Penns River and things aren't getting any better. A major snowstorm looms as a police officer shoots and kills a man after a bar fight. There are four complicating factors:
-
No weapon is found on the dead man.
-
The cop is Black; the victim is white.
-
The victim is not just white; he's a white supremacist.
-
A national leader of the movement wants to use Penns River to set an example and create a martyr for the cause.
Fellow travelers from several neighboring states converge on the town for the funeral as an even bigger snowstorm roars in with them.
While the Penns River police try to keep the lid on, the Allegheny Casino holds a poker tournament. One hundred players each put up $10,000 in cash. The winner walks away with all of it. In cash. The situation is fraught enough without the local cops having to answer every call as if it might be the start of a riot.
Meanwhile, business as usual goes on. Domestic calls still require attention. Traffic accidents increase in the snow. The police department is in transition as older officers leave, their slots filled by either new officers fresh out of the academy, or those who followed the new chief to Penns River from Boston and have big-city attitudes about small town situations.
Detective Ben "Doc" Dougherty is still getting used to his sergeant's stripes as he's pulled into the streets for riot duty and must confront the idea some of his peers may be more sympathetic to the incoming agitators than they are to some of those they swore to protect and serve.
The weekend will stretch the department to its breaking point as events converge to a violent conclusion.
Praise for White Out:
"In his latest Penns River crime novel—White Out—talented author Dana King reminds us again that in those small towns and cities, sneeringly called 'flyover country,' the problems and challenges of the outside world often come to play a deadly visit. In White Out, a shooting involving a Black officer and a seemingly unarmed white supremacist sets off the proverbial spark that threatens to become an inferno. With protestors and counter-protestors arriving, along with the news media and agitators, the strained police department desperately works to keep the peace as an approaching snowstorm and a casino poker tournament complicates matters even further. A gritty crime novel that deserves wide attention." —Brendan DuBois, award-winning and New York Times bestselling author
"It's been a long time since I read a book that pulled me along as urgently as Dana King's latest Penns River novel White Out. King writes about his cops and their town with the kind of real affection that has you not just wanting, but needing, to know what happens to them next—and there's plenty happening in this fast moving, deftly written thriller. Highly recommended." —J.D. Rhoades, bestselling author of the Jack Keller series and the Cade and Clayborne historical thrillers
"We've all heard the stories of White cops shooting and killing unarmed Black men. But what happens when the scenario flips? In White Out, Dana King kills in this gripping behind-the-badge drama. One cop I know wonders how Dana is able to get it so right." —John DeDakis, Novelist, Writing Coach, and former Senior Copy Editor for CNN's "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer"