Ex-prosecutor Mary Crow didn’t expect a hero’s welcome when
she returned home to Pisgah County, North Carolina. But
what she did expect was the job she’d been promised in the
D.A.’s office. Instead she found she’d worn out her welcome
before she even arrived–and that she has more than a few
enemies among the supporters of the corrupt sheriff she’d
caught sidelining in murder years before.

The new sheriff was one of Mary’s childhood schoolmates,
timid and nerdy Jerry Cochran. Only Cochran is neither
nerdy nor timid anymore. And when a young girl is found
brutally murdered and everyone, including the girl’s
parents and the police, is sure the killer is a young,
mystical Ani Zaguhi Cherokee named Ridge Standingdeer,
Mary’s first case in her own law firm slams her into the
heart of a controversy. As a prosecutor, Mary was used to
tenaciously tracking down the guilty. Now she finds herself
on the other side of the law, defending a client she’s sure
is innocent against a merciless system, a bigoted town…and
an even more ruthless killer. With her old lover Jonathan
Walkingstick, Mary will have to go where she’s never gone
before–a place where a psychopath with the perfect mask and
a shocking secret is waiting to add Mary herself to his
growing collection of silent victims.