In The Front, D.A. Lamont has a special job for Massachusetts state investigator Win Garano. As part of a new public-relations campaign about the dangers of declining neighborhoods, she's sending him to Watertown to "come up with a drama", and she thinks she knows just the case that will serve.

Garano is very skeptical, because he knows that Watertown is also the home base for a loose association of municipal police departments called the Front, set up in order that they don't have to be so dependent on the state - much to Lamont's anger. He senses a much deeper agenda here - but he has no idea just how deep it goes. In the days that follow, he'll find that Lamont's task, and the places it leads him, will resemble a house of mirrors - everywhere he turns, he's not quite sure if what he's seeing is true.

This is the master writing at the absolute top of her game. You will never guess what lies behind The Front.