A crime renaissance, gentrification, and racial tension between the police and the people they are sworn to protect are tearing New York City apart. Through the story of Lt. Robert Grey-tormented by the murder of his father years before-The Guilty follows an elite undercover unit taking down the most notorious drug gang in New York, facing revenge, and corruption within its own ranks and city hall.

With hardnosed realism and complex characterization informed by Johnson's years with the NYPD and Homeland Security, The Guilty traces the similarities between Grey's unit, Derek Mason's notorious and violent drug gang that he's hunting. Both groups follow the code of the streets: whether it's the Blue Wall of Silence, or the Stop Snitching Campaign. No matter the side, in New York City, the guilty are the most protected.