In a city where enemies are as easy to come by as friends and where paranoia is the norm, private investigator Rachel Alexander is surprised to see someone waiting for her at New York City's Washington Square Park dog run, where she takes her pit bull, Dashiell, for his daily R&R. When the distraught man asks her to find his missing wife, Rachel accepts the case reluctantly. After all, the chances of finding a woman who disappeared without a trace -- and without a word -- five years earlier are slim. But Rachel is touched by the missing woman's daughter, a troubled young girl who has been mute since her mother disappeared and who is now suspected of the brutal stabbing murder of her doctor.
Although the girl can't, or won't, speak for herself, Rachel believes she is innocent and is determined to find a way to communicate with her in order to discover the truth and clear her name. Against a backdrop of infidelity, neglect, and a city at times as lonely and frightening as a child's worst nightmares, Rachel's involvement in the case uncovers issues more complex, and more tragic, than she's ever seen, eventually exposing problems that someone is willing to die, or even kill, for.
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