Lost to the World

In 1954 Baltimore, Sean Reilly, the detective from DEATH IS THE COOL NIGHT, investigates the murder of a Johns Hopkins researcher, a quiet, well-liked man whose true identity turns out to be just as much a mystery as that of his killer. The victim's death appears linked to the polio vaccine trials about to begin across the country.

A widower now, Detective Reilly struggles to stay focused on the case while being pulled in different directions--by his young sons' fears and needs, by his own desire for love and stability, and by his inability to get beyond his grief for his beloved wife. When a Hopkins secretary, herself a polio victim, feeds him information on the case, he begins to fall for her...as he also wonders if she played a part in the murder.

LOST TO THE WORLD captures a moment in time when the world waited for the "summer plague" -- that had afflicted thousands of children and adults, including the late president -- to be wiped out once and for all.