Juggling her pregnancy, family deaths, her daughter's imminent departure for college, and a reelection campaign, Cochise County Sheriff Joanna Brady investigates two suspicious falling deaths that may be the work of a serial killer.

Sent to Cochise County in Arizona by the Washington State attorney general to investigate the murder of a star witness, J.P. Beaumont teams up with Sheriff Joanna Brady and is surprised to find in her a savvy fellow detective.

"Driven by a compulsion that challenges his self-control, the man calling himself Charles Milton prowls the rodeo circuit, hunting young women. For years, he has been meticulous in his methods, abducting, murdering, and disposing of his victims while leaving no evidence of his crimes--or their identities--behind. Indigenous women have become his target of choice, knowing law enforcement's history of ignoring their disappearances. A cold case has just...

Coping with the impending arrival of her second child, Sheriff Joanna Brady is suddenly confronted with the killing of an ex-con, who had served twenty years in prison for the murder of his pregnant wife.