McGowan's Return is a suspense novel which derives its energy from the convergence of three sets of characters and events. The pace of the story quickens when a Lakewood Detective realizes a connection between the murders of three women, a fact that had remained elusive because the killings were separated by years. The result, however, is always the same. In each case, a woman has been strangled, and left in Cleveland's Edgewater Park.

Detective Darnell Wilson recognizes the pattern and poses the possibility that a single person may be responsible for all three murders. If he is right, a Lakewood resident will soon be found dead in the trunk of her car just inside the Cleveland city limits. His supervisor, Boyd Wakeman, believes that Wilson is correct, but the department's budget is to investigate crimes, not to anticipate them. At the same time, they cannot help but suspect that on September 10th the Cleveland police will be in position to catch a killer and solve some open cases. Of course, the cost of this solution is the death of another woman.

Davis McGowan has come out of retirement to serve a downtown church. This temporary assignment means that he will be commuting from Huron, Ohio to Cleveland's Public Square. Little does he know that he will cross paths with a serial killer.