Police detective Dave Robicheaux faces off with the most diabolical villain he has ever faced in the twentieth installment of the Dave Robicheaux series. Sadistic serial killer Asa Surette avoids the death penalty for murders he committed while capital punishment was banned. But when Robicheaux's daughter Alafair writes a series of articles implicating Surrette in other murders which could get him death, he decides to escape prison and make her pay....

Dave Robicheaux is haunted by the sudden loss of his beloved wife. When he discovers that he may have committed the homicide he is investigating, the death of the man who took his his wife's life, he has to work to clear his name and make sense of the murder.