Dave Case

In the frozen north, courage has a body count.

DEA Agent Faith Nelson is supposed to be going home for Christmas. Her father is facing heart surgery in Oakland. Her mother needs her. And Faith needs distance from Minnesota, from the shooting that made her a reluctant hero, and from the nightmares that followed. 

Then a cartel accountant stops cooperating with a federal grand jury when his college-age stepdaughter disappears.

Faith is sent north to Duluth in the teeth of a winter storm, paired with a partner she does not trust and trapped in a case that keeps turning darker. The missing girl may not have been taken at all. Her roommate knows more than she is saying. A Mexican cartel executioner has entered Minnesota. And when the trail leads beyond Duluth toward the frozen north shore of Lake Superior, Faith finds herself alone, injured, and running out of time. 

Up North is a crime thriller about violence, survival, and the terrible cost of doing the right thing when the cold is closing in and no one is coming fast enough.

Praise for Up North

“Northern Minnesota in winter is no place for the faint-hearted. Faith Nelson keeps relearning that lesson in Dave Case’s intense thriller, Up North. Case has brought decades of police experience to his writing, which gives his action scenes a welcome authenticity.”

— Sara Paretski, author of the bestselling V.I. Warshawski series  and the soon to be released Bad Company

Chicago Cop Stacey Macbeth had ended Lonnie Huggins’ reign of terror when he sent the vicious criminal to prison. Now, however, a non-for-profit team of investigators has freed him back into the real world on some trumped up allegations of misconduct on the part of Macbeth. Word on the street is that Huggins is out and looking to settle some old scores, starting with Macbeth. With innocents caught in the crosshairs, Macbeth vows once more to bring Huggins to justice, setting the stage for a head-to-head confrontation where the rule book has been hurled from the window. Both men embark on a collision course in which each is seeking his own brand of Chicago Justice, knowing that this time there will be only one left standing.