Former NHL forward Brent Burns built his career on discipline, balance, and absorbing impact. Now a Miami Beach detective, he's traded the roar of arenas for the quiet pressure of criminal investigations-where mistakes don't cost goals. They cost lives. When financial analyst Lawrence Halden is murdered, Burns uncovers a system where power operates through implication and violence moves without direct orders. A volatile fixer enforces silence. A respected public official shapes the narrative. And someone was asking questions before Halden's body was even cold. As federal pressure tightens and the investigation explodes into public view, Burns must protect his family while navigating a network built to protect itself. In a world where expectation is more dangerous than instruction, justice demands discipline-and endurance. The Hockey Detective is the first novel in the Brent Burns series, a tightly structured procedural thriller about accountability, institutional power, and the cost of truth.