Father Michael Grabowski, a Franciscan priest who has tended the spiritual needs of Detroit’s Mexicantown for forty years, has suddenly retired. Ex-Detroit PD officer August Snow—the son of a Black cop and a Mexican American painter—grew up in the welcoming melting pot of Father Grabowski’s version of Catholicism, and has known the priest his whole life. August finds the abrupt retirement troubling—especially in light of the criminal scandal brewing at another local diocese. What dark history is Father Grabowski hiding?

The situation takes a turn for the deadly with the appearance at the Detroit diocese of a mysterious priest and combat vet calling himself Francis Dominioni Petra. The man comes from the Vatican, and as his armored guard circles closer and closer to Father Grabowski and his friends, August wants to know why. A terrible crime has been committed in the name of faith—but who is seeking justice, and who is trying to bury the truth and its witnesses? August grapples with his own ideas about faith and his chosen family in this action-packed fourth installment in the Hammett Prize–winning series.