Redd is still cleaning up the details of a kidnapping last autumn when his contact at the FBI asks him to investigate a series of staged accidents and killings that threaten to set off a feud between crime families.

A few days later, a long-time book club friend confides in Redd about an unfinished letter he found buried in a trunk in his closet. It was written years ago, just before his brother was discovered drowned with weights around his ankles. Did the note confirm suicide, or had something more sinister been lurking, for decades?

Guilt, revenge, and seduction color Redd''s first cases as a civilian investigator. There''s nothing like being thrown into the deep end...