King George County coroner J. J. Graves is confronted with the body of Wade Rivers, a wealthy personal trainer found naked inside his luxury condo.
An American flag lies across him, and a knife has been buried where no knife should be, a killing shaped to make its reason known.
Sheriff Jack Lawson works beside her as Wade’s complicated love life opens onto affairs, blackmail, and a dangerous obsession.
In this small-town murder mystery, more people surface with cause to want him dead.
Nearly everyone is concealing something, and J.
J. trusts the dead to expose what the living mean to keep hidden.
