From rookie beat cop patrolling Vancouver's Downtown Eastside to rising through the ranks as a homicide detective, Mike St. James has gone from rubbing elbows with the desperately addicted to chasing professional killers, and taking on the city's most dangerous organized crime figures-always without compromise.

Mike has a knack for solving cases-thanks to his calm logic, deep street smarts, and unorthodox thinking. But when a loved one is targeted by a notorious gangster, it's no longer just another case.

As the death toll escalates, Mike rushes to eliminate the threat. But time and again, insufficient evidence, power plays, legal loopholes, and courtroom decisions tip in the gangster's favour. Even more frustrating, some of the murders land in bordering jurisdictions-one handled by agencies resistant to cooperation, forcing Mike to tackle the case with limited support. With public safety-and the life of someone he still cares for-on the line, Mike must decide: Will his sharp instincts and sense of justice be enough, or will he be forced to cross a line he swore he never would?

Immersive, gritty, and razor-sharp, The Law of Parsimony takes readers deep inside the life of a cop walking the moral tightrope in Vancouver's bleak and unforgiving Downtown Eastside.