Jazz Ramsey is just getting used to the idea that her beau, Nick, might actually be a permanent fixture, when she gets an alarming call from his mother, Kim: there's a dead man in her yard. Strangely, Jazz finds no evidence of a body—until the corpse of Dan Mansfield is discovered in a nearby park, with a photo of Nick and his mom in his pocket. Kim claims not to know who Dan is, but the cops reveal that he was a recently paroled convict who served 30 years for murder. No one wants Jazz poking around, but in her third case (after The Secrets of Bones), she won't give up trying, even if it means risking her own life.