When a sheriff's investigation into the murder of a prison inmate is stymied at every turn, she suspects members of her own force and the county prosecutor of helping to torpedo the effort. She's run up against Buck Stevens, the kingpin of business and politics in LaSalle County—a man the sheriff has learned to distrust and fear. The sheriff steers the victim's parents to Tony Valenti and his partners, hoping to leverage the machinery of a wrongful death lawsuit to get to the bottom of what really happened.

Tony's team soon discovers a deep vein of corruption that pervades the county, poisoning everything and everyone it touches. Determined to expose the rot and bring the killers to justice, Tony and his colleagues soon find themselves battling a ruthless cabal engaged in a conspiracy sinister enough to kill for.

It's a deadly cat and mouse game in which Tony doesn’t know who—if anyone—he can trust. Either justice will prevail, or the body count will grow. Will Tony or one of his associates be the next victim?