When Park Ranger Anna Pigeon answers a call to historic Mt. Locust, once a producing plantation and inn on Mississippi's Natchez Trace Parkway, the last thing she expects to encounter is a naked and very dead man. His body bears what looks like the brutal scars from an S&M ritual gone terribly wrong. When the deceased turned out to be the brother of a candidate for the office of local sheriff, a host of cover-ups, hidden agendas, old allegiances and buried secrets begins to emerge. Follow Anna as she fights for her life in this intensely suspenseful, and exquisitely written tour-de-force of modern mystery writing.