Book 2 of the Jack Larue legal mystery / thriller series continues when the town of Madrone is torn apart by a land developer's promise of big money if the city will approve his proposed development.  Events unfold quickly when the mayor is murdered hours after blocking the approval of the project.
     Larue takes on the legal defense of the mayor's addicted former boyfriend and discovers that the mayor and some city council members have dark secrets. 
     As always, Cody is at Jack's side, but she's worried about him. He's taken on a new child custody case in which he has a deeply personal stake. The child's mother was the lover who died in his car as they hurried to stop the child's father from kidnapping the infant. Then the child's grandparents blamed Jack for their daughter's death, but now they seek his help. 
      As the relentless Cody presses on with the murder case investigation, she draws the ire of a suspicious city councilman and an aggressive investigator for the prosecutor's office.           
     Then, as a wildfire bears down on Madrone, Jack's daughter, Elie, becomes a target for the killer whose identity Cody has discovered and who Jack must finally confront.