Having nearly lost her life pursuing a Hollywood murder case, hipster movie critic Ann Whitehead takes a job in the San Joaquin Valley and investigates a fatal industrial accident that her friend on the LAPD believes was a murder.

The modern world can be a dangerous place, filled with fast cars, smartphones, new drugs, and thrill sports. Meanwhile, we humans are as fragile as ever. In fact, after a century of steady improvement, injuries and accidental deaths are on the rise. Steve Casner has devoted his career to studying the psychology of safety, and he knows there's not a safety warning we won't ignore or a foolproof device we can't turn into an implement of disaster. Careful...