When Hackberry Holland became sheriff of a tiny Texas town
near the Mexican border, he'd hoped to leave certain things
behind: his checkered reputation, his haunted dreams, and
his obsessive memories of the good life with his late wife,
Rie. But the discovery of the bodies of nine illegal
aliens, machine-gunned to death and buried in a shallow
grave behind a church, soon makes it clear that he won't
escape so easily.
As Hack and Deputy Sheriff Pam Tibbs attempt to untangle
the threads of this complex and grisly case, a damaged
young Iraq veteran, Pete Flores, and his girlfriend, Vikki
Gaddis, are running for their lives, hoping to outwit the
bloodthirsty criminals who want to kill Pete for his
involvement in the murders. The only trouble is, Pete
doesn't know who he's running from: drunk and terrified, he
fled the scene of the crime when the shooting began. And
there's a long list of people who want Pete and Vikki dead:
crime boss Hugo Cistranos, who hired Pete for the
operation; Nick Dolan, a strip club owner and small-time
gangster with revenge on his mind; and a mysterious God-
fearing serial-killer-for-hire known as Preacher Jack
Collins, with enigmatic motives of his own.
With the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and a
host of cold-blooded killers on Pete and Vikki's trail,
it's up to Sheriff Holland to find them first and figure
out who's behind the mass murder before anyone else ends up
dead. In this thrilling and intricate work, James Lee Burke
has once again proven himself a master storyteller and a
perceptive chronicler of the darkest corners of the human
heart.