Pascal Marco, a Chicago native and Phoenix resident for over two decades, masterfully constructs an intricate thriller focusing on our country’s fragile infrastructure while addressing head-on the complex issues between citizens and non-citizens of the land. Render Safe is sure to be another success, following in the footsteps of his award-winning, best-selling debut novel, Identity: Lost. Born and raised on the far South Side of Chicago, Pascal Marco grew up in the Calumet region of Lake Michigan where, prior to the EPA’s arrival, steel mills shamelessly yet proudly belched orange-colored particulates around the clock from their scores of smoke stacks. Friendly neighborhood taverns book-ended most city blocks, holding tidy brick homes with plush and meticulously manicured lawns. It was a place where formal education often stopped after high school and a future was determined more by whom one knew rather than what. It was a rough area where the school of hard knocks ruled and outsiders were not readily trusted.