Officer Down

Paul Thielen is a police officer in a small Minnesota town, and his partner, Chris Miller, is gunned down in the alley behind Arnold's Bar. Rattled, Paul backs his squad car out of the dark passage without thinking. That split-second choice makes Chris a hero and leaves Paul branded a coward.

Susan Sink, a writer and poet, sets this novel against the backdrop of policing in small-town America as violence increases across the country. Paul narrates the story as he tries to understand Chris's killing and his own reaction. Along the way he begins a romance that complicates his life and works toward a more complete sense of himself.