The award-winning New York Times bestselling author of After
I’m Gone, The Most Dangerous Thing, I’d Know You Anywhere,
and What the Dead Know brings back private detective Tess
Monaghan, introduced in the classic Baltimore Blues, in an
absorbing mystery that plunges the new parent into a
disturbing case involving murder and a manipulative mother.
On a searing August day, Melisandre Harris Dawes committed
the unthinkable: she left her two-month-old daughter locked
in a car while she sat nearby on the shores of the Patapsco
River. Melisandre was found not guilty by reason of criminal
insanity, although there was much skepticism about her
mental state. Freed, she left the country, her husband and
her two surviving children, determined to start over.
But now Melisandre has returned Baltimore to meet with her
estranged teenage daughters and wants to film the reunion
for a documentary. The problem is, she relinquished custody
and her ex, now remarried, isn’t sure he approves.
Now that’s she’s a mother herself—short on time,
patience—Tess Monaghan wants nothing to do with a woman
crazy enough to have killed her own child. But her mentor
and close friend Tyner Gray, Melisandre’s lawyer, has asked
Tess and her new partner, retired Baltimore P.D. homicide
detective Sandy Sanchez, to assess Melisandre’s security needs.
As a former reporter and private investigator, Tess tries to
understand why other people break the rules and the law. Yet
the imperious Melisandre is something far different from
anyone she’s encountered. A decade ago, a judge ruled that
Melisandre was beyond rational thought. But was she? Tess
tries to ignore the discomfort she feels around the
confident, manipulative Melisandre. But that gets tricky
after Melisandre becomes a prime suspect in a murder.
Yet as her suspicions deepen, Tess realizes that just as
she’s been scrutinizing Melisandre, a judgmental stalker has
been watching her every move as well. . . .
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