In this explosive debut thriller by the New York Times bestselling author of Empire of Blue Water, a brilliant homicide detective returns home, confronting a city’s dark demons and her own past while pursuing a serial killer on a vengeful rampage.

When Jimmy Ryan’s mangled corpse is found in a local church basement, the sadistic sacrilege sends a bone-deep chill through winter-whipped Buffalo. But police detective Absalom “Abbie” Kearney also fears the brutal crime is sending a message—one that only the fiercely secretive citizens of the Irish-American neighborhood known as “the County” understand, and one that seems especially tailored for Abbie’s ears. Searching for answers to explain the monstrous act mysteriously leads Abby to her own family’s past. At work, she finds herself stonewalled at every turn by an old-world code of silence and secrecy. And as the grisly murders continue, she must match wits with a maniacal killer bent on exposing the County’s hidden history . . . one bloody body at a time.
STEPHAN TALTY is a widely published journalist who has contributed to The New York Times Magazine, GQ, Men’s Journal, Time Out New York, Details, and many other publications. He is the New York Times bestselling author ofEmpire of Blue Water and Mulatto America: At the Crossroads of Black and White Culture.