Sitting down to dinner at her favorite Austin taco joint, Lucy Lancaster isn't glad at all to see her former co-worker, Camilla Braithwaite, in this third outing (after Lineage Most Lethal). Camilla's ancestor, a civil war corporal, has been tarred as a phony and a deserter, and she wants Lucy's help clearing his name. Lucy reluctantly agrees to help, but it gets very complicated when a member of the Brathwaite family is murdered, and a triptych painting belonging to them has had two panels stolen. There are no shortage of suspects—including Camilla herself—and this case will take Lucy to Houston and back again as she works to catch an elusive killer.