"Jance is an expert at writing rich mysteries..."

The hardworking single mother of a young daughter, Joanna Brandy still feels the acute pain of loneliness and loss, the hole that was left in her heart when her policeman husband was murdered. But Sheriff Brandy is the law in Cochise County, and murder has shattered the small town's fragile peace. A local gun dealer has died violently, and his stock of high-powered weapons has been cleared out. When two more slayings follow soon after, suspicion falls upon rancher Alton Hosfield, an embittered man at war with the federal government, environmentalists, area new comer with anyone, in fact, whom he perceives as a threat to his home, his family, his freedom, his isolation. An incendiary situation is getting hotter by the minute, and the last thing Joanna wants is another "Ruby Ridge" in her jurisdiction. But bringing the cold-blooded killer to justice could take a terrible toll on her personal life...and unravel threads of family, love, and personal responsibility that might never again be retied.