Perhaps it was fitting justice: a dentist who enjoyed inflicting pain was murdered in his own chair. The question is not who wanted Dr. Frederick Nielsen dead, but rather who of the many finally reached the breaking point. The sordid details of this case, with its shocking revelations of violence, cruelty, and horrific sexual abuse, would be tough for any investigator to stomach. But for Seattle Homicide Detective J.P. Beaumont, the most damning piece...

The body lay amid the garbage behind a Seattle grocery store--a tall, well-built male--dead. Detective J.P. Beaumont's twenty years on the force had given him a sixth sense about people--especially guilty ones. So when he found the victom--a high school basketball coach with a very pregnant wife--had been lynched, Beau suspected this murder was connected with the extremes of love and hatred.

Two of Jance's most compelling characters come together in this suspenseful novel. When the Washington State attorney general's star witness is brutally murdered in Arizona--Sheriff Joanna Brady's turf--the AG sends his newest investigator, former homicide detective J.P. Beaumont.

As a flash from the past, the daughter of his first partner Milton Gurkey (Pickles) shows up, and Beaumont relives his rookie days in which--while in the midst of suffering a heart attack--Pickles stumbles into a crime in progress. In the end, a woman's dead, Pickles is unconscious--holding the murder weapon--and rookie Beaumont and his cop friends must find out the truth.