After a three-year prison sentence, disgraced prosecutor Bell Elkins is back in Acker's Gap, but all is not well. A prominent local family has fallen victim to the same sickness that infects the whole region: drug addiction. Teamed up with former Deputy Jake Oakes, who battles his own demons as he adjusts to life as a paraplegic, and aided by the new prosecutor, Rhonda Lovejoy, Bell tackles a case as poignant as it is perilous, as heartbreaking as it is challenging. Lauded by Library Journal as a "haunting, thought-provoking story," Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Julia Keller's 7th mystery in the series is a follow up to Fast Falls the Night.