A terrifying truth is buried at the juncture where lethal greed and unassailable power converge.
The dead woman was an artist recently arrived from Washington State, cruelly cut down in the early stages of a promising career. Now all that remains of Rochelle Baxter lies on a cold slab in the Cochise County morgue, and Sheriff Joanna Brady knows that murder has once again infected her small desert community.
But there is more to this homicide than initially meets the eye – and more to the victim, who died while supposedly under the conscientious protection of the government.
A big-city legal establishment has no faith in the abilities of a small-town sheriff, let alone a female sheriff. Instructed to swallow her indignation, Joanna awaits the arrival of the “help” Washington ’s...