New York Times bestselling author Laura Lippman plunges Baltimore private investigator Tess Monaghan into a twisted and disturbing caseTess Monaghan has encountered almost every possible criminal motive throughout her career greed revenge jealousy rage But there are crimes that defy all attempts at understanding where a search for motive seems pointlessMelisandre Harris Dawes committed such a crime Found not guilty by reason of insanity she fled the country leaving her two daughters with their father Twelve years later shes back in Baltimore and Tess is asked to provide security detail while Melisandre films a documentary about her attempts to reconcile with her now teenaged childrenTess juggling work with caring for her demanding toddler is uneasy about the case Still Melisandres lawyer is family And there is something about the woman herselfconfident beautiful shrewdly intelligentthat draws Tess in Is she a master manipulator or someone who was driven to temporary madness Cold and calculating or a mother concerned for her daughters well being Someone is leaving Melisandre enigmatic threatening notes Soon Tess insecure about her parenting abilities and receiving cryptic messages of her own isnt sure whether she should be protecting Melisandre from harmor protecting everyone else from MelisandreWhen Melisandre becomes the prime suspect in a murder Tess must uncover the truth Doing so will mean confronting her deepest beliefs about what separates good parents from bad madness from sanity and what lengths even the most rational person will go to to protect what they cherish most.
