Deep in the woods of West Virginia, Bell Elkins—a prosecutor turned private investigator—passes the ruins of Wellwood, a psychiatric hospital that burned to the ground decades ago. While searching for a missing teenager, Bell finds a dead body, marred by a wound that can only mean murder. In this eighth novel in the series (after Bone on Bone) by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Julia Keller, Bell asks for help from former lawmen Nick Fogelsong and Jake Oakes, but each must confront Wellwood's dark legacy.