Armed with an entirely new set of characters, Robert Crais has crafted another thriller that is tense from the very beginning of the nail-biting prologue. Scott James is a cop whose partner, Stephanie, was murdered a year earlier. Maggie is a military German shepherd whose handler was killed by explosives. Both are traumatised by the loss of those they cared for. Together, they look into Stephanie’s death, all the while hoping that the investigation won’t be the cause of their own.

Fiona Hardy sells books and talks too much to customers at Readings Carlton, and puts together