When a dead body falls out of the sky with every bone broken, every organ shattered, and no identification, Ellison and Sandburg know that they are not dealing with an ordinary criminal.

When a series of explosions level black churches throughout Cascade, Ellison, Sandburg and Captain Banks uncover the racist influences of the White Aryan Resistance (WAR) in their city.

When archaeology student Martin Gillman is buried alive by a cave-in at an excavation site, Ellison and Sandburg suspect foul play. As they unearth vendettas between various members of the archaeological team allusions also surface to hidden treasure buried at the site.

Jim Ellison can't explain how Warren Chapel, a permanent patient at a maximum-security mental institution, has detailed firsthand knowledge of a string of grisly murders occurring around Cascade.

Professor Robert McCain, the Rainier University expert in serial killers, turns up dead and Ellison is forced to re-open a case that dates back to his youth. As a 10-year-old Jim discovered the last known victim of the infamous Country Club Strangler and it's haunted him ever since.

Jim's friend Roger Corman, a U.S. Marshall, is killed in a car bombing before he can reveal the name of a corrupt marshall that he's uncovered. Ellison must ferret out the traitor but finds his hands tied when the U.S. Marshalls themselves take over the investigation.

Jim and Blair are assigned to protect pop singer Angie Ferris from an obsessive, escaped convict named Jay Weston.

When retired television actor Vince Deal suspects that one of his friends has been murdered he enlists the help of Jim Ellison.

Ellison sees an undercover police detective named Brent Marten thrown to his death from a police helicopter. Ellison watches Banks and his men retrieve the body from the harbor, then learns the case has been placed under the jurisdiction of Internal Affairs investigator Sheila Irwin.

When basketball players on the Cascade Jaguars start turning up dead, Jim must calculate the difference between a good shot and a deadly one.

Ellison knows that the city is in for trouble when Garrett Kincaid, the leader of the Sunrise Patriots militia group, escapes from prison. While Jim tracks the escaped convict, Captain Banks, Daryl Banks, and Blair Sandburg attend a Cascade Jaguars' basketball game.

Blair falls for Jim's new neighbor; a beautiful woman named Iris, but learns that this particular girl next door isn't as innocent as she appears. Iris and her ex-boyfriend Chance haven't exactly been living the American dream and the smitten Sandburg is quickly sucked into this couple's twisted nightmare.

After stopping an armored car heist, Ellison is struck by the high-tech weaponry at the criminals' disposal.

At an unrelated auto accident by the river, evidence surfaces which implicates Jim and his old partner, Jack Pendergrast, in a kidnapping/murder case from four years prior.

When Blair and Jim join Captain Banks at his 20-year high school reunion they discover more than just nostalgia awaiting them in the officer's hometown.

Ellison finds himself witness to the beginnings of an underworld war between the drug-running bikers of The Void and the local representatives of the deadly Japanese Yakuza.

Ellison and Sandburg are sent to a college campus to investigate the murder of Fred Turlock, a maintenance worker.

While Captain Banks, Blair, and Jim are fishing together they stumble across a poaching ring that's hooked up with a powerful Chinese gangster named Ho Ng.

When Captain Banks is injured in a shootout at the Cascade National Bank, Captain Sarah Finkelman steps in as his replacement and steps on some toes. She rubs Ellison and Sandburg the wrong way with her new policy changes and obsessive control.

It's guys' night out for Ellison and Sandburg as they watch Sandburg's old buddy, boxer "Sweet" Roy Williams fight a few rounds. Things turn decidedly sour when Sweet Roy winds up dead and all the leads point to his jealous little brother, Jamie.

It appears that Brad Ventriss and Suzanne Nadine, two students in Blair's anthropology class, are engaged in some extracurricular activities that aren't listed in any of the college handbooks.

When Internal Affairs accuses him of stealing money captured in local drug busts, Ellison finds that during this case he's forced to answer the hard questions instead of asking them.

When employees start dying "accidentally" aboard the North Star Five oilrig, Jim and Blair discover that their newest assignment has them walking a decidedly watery beat.

Ellison receives a phone call from old Army buddy Sam Holland, who asks for help.

A birthday party for Katrina, a young Russian woman, is interrupted by a vicious attack that claims the life of two men and ends with the theft of a mysterious black suitcase from the woman's boyfriend, Sergei. Ellison and Sandburg receive little cooperation from the witnesses, but Ellison's "Sentinel" intuition leads him to discover a gold neckchain worn by Sergei is, in fact, radioactive.