FBI agent Reed Markham is haunted by one painful unsolved mystery: who murdered his mother? Camilla was brutally stabbed to death more than forty years ago while baby Reed lay in his crib mere steps away. The trail went so cold that the Las Vegas Police Department has given up hope of solving the case. But then a shattering family secret changes everything Reed knows about his origins, his murdered mother, and his powerful adoptive father, state senator Angus Markham. Now Reed has to wonder if his mother's killer is uncomfortably close to home.
Unable to trust his family with the details of his personal investigation, Reed enlists his friend, suspended cop Ellery Hathaway, to join his quest in Vegas. Ellery has experience with both troubled families and diabolical murderers, having narrowly escaped from each of them. She's eager to skip town, too, because her own father, who abandoned her years ago, is suddenly desperate to get back in contact. He also has a secret that could change her life forever, if Ellery will let him close enough to hear it.
Far from home and relying only on each other, Reed and Ellery discover young Camilla had snared the attention of dangerous men, any of whom might have wanted to shut her up for good. They start tracing his twisted family history, knowing the path leads back to a vicious killer-one who has been hiding in plain sight for forty years and isn't about to give up now.
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(@TitanBooks, 11 February 2020, 336 pages, ebook, #ARC from @TitanBooks and voluntarily reviewed)
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I was gripped from the opening section of the novel and the book held my interested until the final page. I really enjoyed the author's novel; The Vanishing Season so had high expectations for this book. I was not disappointed. This book contains the same main character, Ellery Hathaway. She's a lot stronger in this book but still pretty messed up, suspended, not because she killed a murderer but because she refuses to show any remorse. She's a great heroine. Reed is great as well and the book focuses on the skeletons in his family closet, unwittingly revealed when his adopted sister decides to involve him in their family tree project. I just love books about family secrets and sinister links to the past. I'm a sucker for dark and twisted roots. I really enjoyed the way this one ends.
